The Dead Zone
Directed by David Cronenberg
Starring Christopher Walken (Johnny Smith), Brooke Adams (Sarah Bracknell), Tom Skerritt (Sheriff Bannerman), Herbert Lom (Dr. Sam Weizak), Anthony Zerbe (Roger Stuart), Colleen Dewhurst (Henrietta Dodd), Martin Sheen (Greg Stillson)
A film review by Chris Loar
_The Dead Zone_ is an entertaining bit of fluff from the normally rather more controversial David Cronenberg. It's taken from a novel by Stephen King, but it's not the King novel I'd have suggested that Cronenberg direct; he could have done much more with something a bit more visceral -- _Salem's Lot_, perhaps. From what I remember of it, King's novel is pretty low-key, an effort at something more internal and psychological; Cronenberg, on the other hand, is anything but low-key, and the ill-conceived match here yields a film that, while not exactly bad, isn't terribly compelling, either.
The story is rather faithful to the novel, and revolves around Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) who, following a serious injury, spends five years in a coma and emerges with psychic powers -- the ability to see the future. Unfortunately, Johnny doesn't get to see any of the good stuff that might happen -- he only sees tragedy, impending doom, death, despair, catastrophe -- that sort of thing. Johnny, not surprisingly, isn't entirely happy about all this, and since his visions are intensified by human contact, he becomes increasingly reclusive and antisocial, hoping to rid himself of the agony of everyone's eventual death. He's is brought partially out of his shell by a young man who he's hired to tutor; and, before long, he's pried out the rest of the way by a premonition of world war -- a war that might be brought about by a Perot-esque politician, Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen). Johnny takes decisive action for perhaps the first time in his life, and ends up (I don't think I'm giving away too much here) saving the world, quite literally.
_The Dead Zone_ is, as I mentioned, a bit of a stretch for Cronenberg; it's not especially gory and it's not particularly provocative. There's no sign of Cronenberg's usual distortions and transformations of the human body, and it's visually uninspired -- just another Hollywood knockoff of a Stephen King novel, when it comes down to it. There's nothing especially wrong with that, of course, and Cronenberg does it as well as anyone; _Dead Zone_ is a competent thriller with a few frightening moments.
But no one involved in the production is at their peak. Christopher Walken is convincingly passive when he needs to be, and he manages to look appropriately twitchy when he's in the throes of one of his "episodes," but he hasn't yet developed that signature creepyness that makes him so much fun to watch in films like _True Romance_ and _Last Man Standing_. Martin Sheen is, of course, convincingly charismatic, but he's never quite as terrifying as he needs to be. And cinematographer Mark Irwin (fresh from _Videodrome_ himself) doesn't seem to have any ideas to spruce things up; there are a few nicely claustrophobic shots, but nothing remarkable. It's a film to see if you love Stephen King, or are intent on seeing Cronenberg's entire body of work, or get a special charge out of stories about clairvoyants. Otherwise, you can safely give it a miss.
(C) 1998 Chris Loar
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