DEEP IMPACT (Paramount - 1998) Starring Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan Freeman, Maximilian Schell Screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin Produced by Richard D. Zanuck, David Brown Directed by Mimi Leder Running time: 120 minutes
** (out of four stars)
Alternate Rating: C
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
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The act of self-sacrifice is one of the most affecting things that can be depicted in a film, and it's something that DEEP IMPACT incessantly attempts to exploit throughout its running time. Blatantly attempting to tug on the heartstrings of its audience, the film wallows in the selflessness of its characters' actions to such an extent that it ultimately chokes upon its own nobility.
DEEP IMPACT is the first of 1998's aspiring major summer blockbusters, and a distinct one in that its focus is less on wanton destruction and more on characterization (no surprise when considering that its screenwriters are Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin). The film presents us with the scenario of a newly-discovered comet that's headed on a trajectory bringing it on a collision course with Earth, promising to destroy life as we know it, and then splinters off into three subplots: an enterprising young reporter, Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni), embittered by her father's (Maximilian Schell) divorce of her mother (Vanessa Redgrave, wasted) and subsequent remarriage to a much younger woman; Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood), a high-school amateur astronomer who's the first to discover the comet (which consequently bears, in part, his name), and his sweetheart romance with neighbour Sarah (Leelee Sobieski); and a joint American-Russian space mission to intercept and destroy the interstellar threat, manned by cagey veteran Spurgeon Tanner (Robert Duvall) and a team of fresh-faced, media-savvy astronauts. Tying these threads together is U.S. President Beck (Morgan Freeman), who appears intermittently in order to make grave televised announcements to the public and recap what's happened in the film if you stepped out for popcorn.
While it's somewhat odd to find an effects-friendly scenario primarily driven by character dramatics rather than visual eye-candy, none of the three major vignettes are particularly compelling, and the treacly uplifting effect clearly desired by director Mimi Leder isn't achieved. The story arcs for each of the threads are laboriously familiar, and there are so many scenes which involve our characters ignoring instincts of self-preservation in order to do the right thing that scenes of poignancy become increasingly ineffective.
The weakest of the subplots is that of MSNBC reporter Jenny Lerner, who inadvertently stumbles across the news of the comet while investigating another story; the whole ELE political intrigue angle of the film is misguided and plays as a desperate plot device to move the story ahead. It doesn't help matters any that Ms. Leoni's performance is surprisingly lifeless -- she's perpetually shellshocked throughout the film, making her entire thread more distracting than engaging. (A scene which calls upon her to drunkenly cackle at someone's innocuously oblivious comment that "life goes on" is wretched both in its conception and execution.) Hinging upon the audience's involvement with the tenuous relationship between Jenny and her estranged father in the face of impending catastrophe, this subplot falls well short.
Similarly, there's much to be desired with Leo Biederman's story, which encapsulates the life-and-death drama of DEEP IMPACT. While President Beck informs the American public that heroic astronauts have been sent to eradicate the comet threat, a backup plan is nearing completion. A network of vast caves have been created to house one million Americans and ensure their survival for up to two years should the comet strike the planet; as well as a list of predesignated personnel, a national lottery, it is announced, will be held to select who will fill the shelters. In reality, of course, this proclamation would wind up being tied up in the courts for years (the clause which deems those over 50 to be automatically excluded from the draw in particular is a real ageism stickler), but no matter -- this is the movies, where people are far more altruistic; those who fail to be picked and are essentially condemned to death mostly stand outside the cave base camps and look mildly irritated.
Where DEEP IMPACT makes a bad step is when the young astronomer Leo, selected to go into the caves by virtue of his co-discovery of the comet, proposes to dreamgirl Sarah so that, as his wife, she'll also be given passage to the caves and be able to survive the impending disaster. Backed by a gentle musical interlude, it's a scene that's clearly intended to be sweet and touching, but given her opposition to the idea, I thought it was surprisingly extortionistic, akin to declaring "Marry me or die."
The film plays the Leo / Sarah subplot in hokey manner, wavering back and forth on whether or not she'll join him in the survival caves, and hits each note in predictable fashion; in a scene where Leo races around on motorcycle in desperate search of his beloved, there's one shot where he screeches his bike to a halt and tosses his head back to look over his shoulder as the music heroically crescendos which is such a familiar staple that it almost had me groaning aloud.
Meanwhile, Spurgeon Tanner and the crew of spacecraft The Messiah are given some artificial conflict of their own to deal with in addition to disabling the lethal potential of the comet. The young astronauts, led by Oren Monash (Ron Eldard), are resentful of Tanner's mere presence on the mission due to his age -- this is a young man's game, they believe. It's a ridiculous plot angle used for no other discernable reason than to spice up the subplot -- is there *any* doubt that the wily veteran will win the respect of his crewmates? -- but Mr. Duvall and Mr. Eldard do what they can to give it a credible spin. There's some obligatory space-bound suspense involving the astronauts navigating a dangerously-unstable comet surface, which is staged nicely but fails to surprise in its aftermath.
The one performer which comes out best in the film (other than James Cromwell, whose participation is essentially that of a cameo) is Mr. Freeman. The role is undemanding, but his sheer onscreen presence and the gravity with which he's able to convey his dialogue powers him through questionable material. To a large degree, Mr. Freeman is effective because for the most part his character doesn't interact with any of the film's other characters at all, but directly addresses the audience; essentially isolated, it's as if he's in his own separate (and superior) film.
While Ms. Leder depicts a world under siege, it's a shame that DEEP IMPACT chose to underplay the mass chaos and lawlessness that would legitimately accompany the advent of such a catastrophic event. (The fact that the country has been placed under martial law is touched upon, but with the arrival of the end of the world, that would likely mean little.) The film would be a much more visceral and provocative experience had it dared to show society coming apart at its seams, as in Steve De Jarnatt's MIRACLE MILE or in THE TWILIGHT ZONE's "The Shelter" episode. There's also the questionable inclusion of a shot of the Capitol under reconstruction -- it's obviously intended to be uplifting and life-affirming, but it's an odd choice to make when one considers that the destruction of the White House was by far the most popular -- nay, the *centerpiece* -- visual effects shot for Roland Emmerich's blockbuster INDEPENDENCE DAY which left crowds cheering in glee. Since audiences clearly enjoy seeing the landmarks of the American establishment being shredded, one wouldn't necessarily expect that their symbolic reconstruction would be a crowdpleaser.
For some reason, the film includes an early sequence in which an astronomer is killed in an automobile accident while scrambling to get the word out on the approaching killer comet. Since the impact of the incident is negligible -- the data ultimately does reach its intended parties -- and the character is never spoken of again, I'm left with the nagging suspicion that it was included primarily so that there'd be at least one explosion during the film's opening hour, but the scene laid the groundwork for something more potentially ironic; the world was left unprepared for the comet because the astronomer's mail server went down. Yeah, I know that feeling.
DEEP IMPACT is certainly more of a human drama than it is a disaster film (likely to the consternation of the audience drawn in by the promise of widespread destruction and mayhem) -- indeed, there's essentially only the single apocalyptic sequence which has been heavily featured in its promotional material -- and as a character-driven drama, it fails on that level.
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
-- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "Unlike you, I'm tolerant of weirdness." - Jennifer Jason Leigh, CROOKED HEARTS
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