"The Experiment" had every reason to be great, however the director and etc. consistently made elementary mistakes that resulted in this film not living up to it's own potential. The seemingly unreal can occur in real life, however there remained errors that left me rolling my eyes and chastising the films believability; eyeliner, jewelry, cliche stereotypical music that is to alert us that the shyt has hit the fan so to speak and so much more. The cast consist of several chosen inmates, but we are given only three to somewhat focus on, Adrien Brody more so. There are at least five or six guards, but eventually they somewhat become irrelevant in my eye and given bits of moments to "appear" important. We begin to more so focus on Forest Whitaker's character instead; Lives at home with his mother, lacks a spine, appears not to fit in and due to circumstance is a loner. We have seen such a character before and can assume what direction he will take in a position of authority and "respect",yet I could not enjoy him due to the rushed feel of the film. Whitaker's character was not given full opportunity to pull us in and entertain us with his unravel. I have come to really enjoy Forest Whitaker and he def' takes the cake when acting the role of a person who struggles with either inner demons, the pain of yearning to belong, in search of the definition of life or it's foundation, an outcast that when speaks his voice accents low self esteem, but disappointingly that character is in no way revamped in this role. Whitaker's character development did not convince me that he'd went over to the dark side, but instead his actions specifically made that conspicuous. I would have preferred to have seen him gradually alter his ego rather than have had his character take such a drastic direction in such an unrealistic matter of time. Adrien Brody's character, well... he could have played that role in his sleep. Brody's details as to who he is is perpetaully wasted on some irrelevant and/or uninteresting blond he appears to have already fallen in love prior to the experiment.
The point is Mr Whitaker and Mr. Brody played roles that gave them nothing new to work with. The experimenters are ghost for the entire duration of the film. The three met no demands and did not surpass even medium expectations, which only adds to the list of why this film results in an ineffectual after taste. Tension rising was instead substituted for a crammed together film that may have left it's best scenes on the cutting room floor. Psychological depth was thrown aside and in it's place we are given the "ewwww" factor time and time again. The film lacks the journey into a downward spiral and displays no organic grit to back it up. Self exploration of human response and behavior when either in position of power and/or powerless was the hurdle that this film quickly ran away from. Not once is morality actually challenged rather it is easily cast aside. This film did not give me the feeling that I was there, heck it didn't interest me enough to have imagined what I think I'd do. "The Experiment" lacks rough edges and instead provides consistent gloss. The climax displays one lasting hope of potential with a favorable camera shot and slow motion, but does not truly deliver when considering all it's taken to get to this moment. The volume of the music during climax did not raise the goosebumps on my arms instead I think they sunk in when the last WTH moment occurs in response to the now "Who gives @#$!" redlight!?" Before the closing credits I found myself questioning over over "Why wasn't it better?". This film experimented alright and my conclusion reads "Try again in a couple of months". I rate this film a 2.5/5.-Stolee