El Niņo has screwed up our weather patterns so much that the first summer movie has arrived in early May. Some of the haste in presenting Deep Impact is an attempt to put as much distance as possible between this film and the July release of Armageddon. Both films bring us an Earth threatened by collision with a Big Rock From Space. A recent news release caused a buzz about this very thing, but it was quickly refuted. One account said that the alarmist scientist was linked to one of these films. Welcome to the information age.
The movie starts with a young MSNBC reporter Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni), who thinks she has uncovered a cabinet-level scandal. The "Ellie" that Jenny suspects of being a homewrecker turns out to be an E.L.E. project - "Extinction Level Event." In less than a year, a Manhattan-sized comet will strike the Earth. This gets her on the inside track as the story develops, and vaults her to an anchor's desk, perhaps before she is ready. Her newscasts move the story along. And there IS a story. Although Dreamworks spent good money for special effects, they also hired real scriptwriters, and many good actors.
Casting Morgan Freeman as president is perfect - he always radiates a cool intelligence that could get him the real job if he wanted it. His grave press conferences give the film an emotional depth. Robert Duvall plays an aged astronaut, added to a space team that will try to intercept and destroy the comet. The young crew resents his insertion into their practiced team, but he proves his worth. Charles Martin Smith opens up the film with a good, brief role as the astronomer who discovers the comet. Elijah Wood plays the high-schooler who brings it to his attention, achieving co-discoverer status. The kid's new fame forms one of the side stories, as it merges with another - the government lottery to see who will get to hide below the surface and survive the impending nuclear winter. Another sub-plot gives Vanessa Redgrave some good scenes as Jenny's mother, and she makes them genuine enough to transcend their "filler" status.
Tea Leoni may not have been the best choice to play Jenny. She has demonstrated that she is a brilliant, beautiful comedienne, but this role uses none of her strengths. Jenny never smiles, never shows any skin, and always looks tired. Seeing her weary, hollow face so often, I caught myself wondering if she shouldn't put on a few pounds.
Some scenes in such an epic write themselves: disarrayed traffic; heroic gestures, successful and futile; heartfelt farewells. It would serve no purpose to elaborate on the ending, except to say that it clearly shows a lot of thought and respect for the audience. That respect did not preclude some fairly blatant product placement, though. While showing stockpiles of Ensure may save some lines of dialogue, it was done more than once. And is there any reason our reporter has to work for MSNBC and not some other, CNN-like, cable news outfit? Other movies substitute other letters of the alphabet without breaking stride. Small gripes for a decent effort. Deep Impact makes a reasonable addition to the genre, and it doesn't make the audience swallow much to buy into it.
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