FEARLESS
A Review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1993 James Berardinelli
FEARLESS
Rating (Linear 0 to 10): 8.2
Date Released: 10/29/93 (General) Running Length: 2:04 Rated: R (Mature themes, language, charred bodies)
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez,
Tom Hulce, John Turturro
Director: Peter Weir
Producers: Paula Weinstein and Mark Rosenberg
Screenplay: Rafael Yglesias based on his novel
Music: Maurice Jarre
Released by Warner Brothers
While standing on a station platform waiting for an oncoming train, have you ever wondered what would happen if you threw yourself on the tracks? Or, while atop a high building, have you ever been teased by an impulse - regardless of how brief and irrational - to throw yourself off the edge? FEARLESS presents a compelling - and sometimes unnerving - account of a man who lives every moment of his life like that because he has, in his opinion, passed beyond the normal bounds of what we consider as "living", in effect cheating death.
The film opens with Max Klein (Jeff Bridges) striding purposefully through a head-high field of corn, a baby in his arms and a young boy by his side. These three are among the survivors of a brutal plane wreck which has strewn death and debris all over a southern California corn field. After delivering the boy to the authorities and the baby to its tearfully-joyful mother, Max walks away from the scene of the accident and heads to Los Angeles, where he holes up in a motel, not even calling his wife Laura (Isabella Rossellini) to let her know that he's alive. Eventually, he is forcibly brought back to his San Francisco home, opting to fly instead of taking the proffered train ticket. His family finds him a changed man, and the airline therapist (John Turturro) can't reach him. Eventually, Max is introduced to another survivor - Carla Rodrigo (Rosie Perez), a young woman who lost her son in the crash. Perhaps not unexpectedly, the two embark upon a deeply-emotional and highly-unusual friendship.
FEARLESS is much like a masterful, but incomplete, painting. At the center of the canvas, where the primary focus lies, the colors are brilliant and the image fully-realized. But moving towards the edges, the grays begin to dominate and the coherence of the picture fragments. This movie knows and develops its main theme with undeniable accuracy and power, but many of the subplots and lesser ideas are left untold or vaguely fleshed out.
This is one of those rare films that gets the audience to think while still telling a gripping story. The issues it presents are not easy to grapple with, nor are there pat solutions held ready for mass consumption. During the course of two hours, we are made to consider the nature (and fragility) of life and death, and the relationship between God and man. As Max puts it, "People don't so much believe in God as they choose not to believe in nothing." That one line says as much about his character as it does the intentions of this motion picture.
Max isn't particularly likable, but we feel for him nonetheless. His trauma has distanced him from the rest of humanity and we sympathize with his wife's frustration when she can't get through to the man he used to be. He thinks he's invulnerable - that since the crash didn't kill him, nothing can. To prove his point, he defies death at every opportunity: walking across a street filled with speeding cars, balancing along a precarious ledge hundreds of feet above the ground, and pushing his car as fast as it will go. We may realize that Max is no superman, but he doesn't.
Jeff Bridges, who tends to play his roles with more stoicism than emotion, finds the right balance. He gives us a Max that we aren't likely to identify with, but who doesn't promote audience apathy, either. Isabella Rossellini is not as effective as Laura - she doesn't always have the best grip on her character - but her part doesn't demand the same level of intensity.
Best of the three principles is Rosie Perez, whose portrayal of a grief- stricken mother unable to deal with the death of her son, comes across with stark believability. For the most part, Perez's acting is understated, which makes sudden bursts of emotion all the more forceful.
Tom Hulce's role as a conniving, money-grubbing lawyer could have been left out altogether. Not only in Hulce totally unconvincing, but this particular element of the story is pointless and distracting. John Turturro doesn't fare much better. I never accepted him as a therapist, and his presence adds little to FEARLESS. Once his character disappears, we never miss him.
The theatrical trailers for this movie would lead you to believe that it's an uplifting experience. Nothing could be further from the truth. While there are a few moments of emotional exultation, most of the movie explores darker elements of human nature. The tangible presence of the Grim Reaper hangs above FEARLESS from start to finish.
The right composer was chosen for the job. The score, by Maurice Jarre, is suitably eerie at all the right times. There is no grand fanfare or devastating crescendo during the crash sequences. Instead, we get an unearthly, almost-silent theme that seems to slow down the action, lending added impact to the tragedy.
While the relationship between Max and Carla is developed to perfection, there are a few offshoots of the main story that are never plumbed satisfactorily. Great care is taken to show the hero worship exhibited by the boy who followed Max out of the plane, but beyond the setup, little is done. There are indications of the stress that this places on Max's relationship with his own son, but the situation is given perfunctory treatment.
One of the most emotionally-wrenching scenes in FEARLESS is a group therapy session where survivors relate their memories of the crash. There is so much untapped potential here that it seems a crime for director Peter Weir to give it such cursory treatment.
FEARLESS is an impressive film even considering the untapped potential. The interactions of the three main characters are potent without being shocking or sensationalistic (especially those between Max and Carla), and the import of the questions raised isn't diminished because of the lack of firm answers. The final scene is a fitting, if highly-symbolic, conclusion to all that goes before it, and should provide fodder for post-movie conversations and/or reflections. FEARLESS is not a film that you walk away from and immediately forget.
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
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