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PHENOMENON
Sheri K. Goh
Director: John Turteltaub
Writer: Gerald Di Pego
Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael
Music: Thomas Newman
Cast: John Travolta (George Malley), Kyra Sedgwick (Lace Pennamin), Forest Whitaker (Nate Pope), Robert Duvall (Doc)
Length: 123 minutes
Theatre: Golden Village Cinemas
Rating: *** out of *****
If you're a fan of happy-happy-joy-joy flicks of the working-class kind, and you watched FORREST GUMP fifty-three times while making your catch-phrase "stupid is as stupid does," then PHENOMENON is a movie you'll definitely enjoy. George Malley reprises the role of the lovable common guy, except this one walks out into the night on his birthday, stares at the sky and the brain explodes into activity, and his life is never the same again.
John Travolta plays George Malley, a mechanic whose idea of wooing his lady love, Lace (Kyra Sedgwick), a really bad chair maker, is to buy the chairs she makes, just so she will make more chairs and keep coming back to the stand outside his garage where they are put for sale. He even gives them to his best friend, as he has so many chairs he doesn't know what to do with them. *gush* After he gets zapped by the light in the sky his brain is so energised he reads two or three books a day, learns Portuguese in 20 minutes, predicts earthquakes and experiments with solar energy.
His long-time doctor (Robert Duvall) and conscience of the town tries to goad him for a medical checkup, as all this brain activity is so (duh) unusual, but of course George refuses till it’s too late. The ending is quire predictable once you realise why he’s suddenly become so smart. The plot kind of falls apart from that point onwards.
Apart from being thoroughly impossible in a realistic setting, it fails because the characters take far too long to get going. Most of the film is spent in trying to wow us with the new-found prowess of George’s brain. Also, why Lace is such an absolute wet blanket remains a mystery. It is also never quite explained how someone’s accelerated brain activity occurs so suddenly, and even gives him the power to zap a dozen wooden beams off the side of a tree. HOW??!! They never tell us!
Travolta's role as a SNAG (sensitive New Age guy) is a mark of how versatile an actor he is, and that his success as a Ah Beng exterminator in PULP FICTION wasn't just a one-off comeback. It is a shame, however, that he does not get to exhibit much of an acting range in this soppy tear-jerker. Also, Robert Duvall spends most of his time looking rather perturbed, as he ponders the mysteries of George's brain and acts as his surrogate father. Very two-dimensional characters here.
But, as the trend goes in movies nowadays (cf. A TIME TO KILL, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, FORREST GUMP) the issue of prejudicing those who are different from us is addressed. Rather than accepting George's change, the townsfolk are crude and critical - they make up stories about how he had probably seen a UFO and maybe the aliens altered his brain, as well as media-bashing the insensitive press. Makes a point, thought rather un-subtly.
The Flying Inkpot Rating System:
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
Sheri K Goh is wondering whether Sellavision will ever come up with a product that accelerates her brain like George Malley's.
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