POWDER
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: POWDER is the kind of story that
could have been pretty sappy, and in fact it is
sappy, but only in the final minutes of the film.
Until then it is actually a fairly riveting story
for the right audience. A teenager with superhuman
powers is faced with bigotry in his community. But
he changes the lives of people who come in contact
with him. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4)
Sometimes a film just clicks for reasons hard to determine. POWDER should not work well as a film, but it does. This is a story about a self-effacing superman with a pained expression on his face who finds himself in a world that largely does not appreciate him. It initially looks like a self-indulgent film searching for a cult following from a narrow band of sentimentalists. That may even be what it was, but it did just enough that worked for me that I fell into that narrow band. In another ten years I may look at this film and wonder what I saw in it, but for right now it had more than one scene that paid off for me. I would like to think I will always find the subplot with the deputy to be powerful.
Jeremy Reid, inexplicably called "Powder" (played by Sean Patrick Flanery), has not had much of a life. His mother died of a lightning bolt before his birth. The albino fetus salvaged from the dead woman was rejected by the father. The child was raised by his grandparents and lived in a dark cellar for almost all of his life. Powder, it seems, was not entirely human, though what else he is is never clear. He may be a mutation or maybe an implanted alien. But he has an I.Q. that goes beyond measurement, a photographic memory, telepathic and empathic abilities, and voluntary and involuntary powers to affect electromagnetic waves. Due to his upbringing he is introverted and maladjusted. Wherever he goes he is hated and feared by most of his Texas community. Sent to a school for disturbed children, he finds friends in the head of the school (Mary Steenburgen) and an energetic science teacher (Jeff Goldblum).
Actor Sean Patrick Flanery is hidden under an overly obvious makeup job which looks like it was intended to justify the title of the film. Flanery is not a bad actor--some viewers may remember him as TV's teenage Young Indiana Jones. But in POWDER the white make-up lacks contrast and seems to hide all of his facial expression but the most pained looks, which he then uses all too often. Also sprinkled in are some good character actors like Lance Hendriksen as the town sheriff. Hendriksen is one of those familiar actors who never seem to get the appreciation they deserve. Mary Steenburgen is not well-used, but Jeff Goldblum as the enthusiastic science teacher is a treat. Two more actors it is nice to see working are Ray Wise and camp film actress Susan Tyrrell.
The script has some problems. Powder's powers seem to be revealed only as he needs them and we are never sure what powers he has. That is not necessarily bad, though one might question if the writer and director Victor Salva had a clear idea of what he wanted Powder to be. For example, the teenager seems to be involuntarily magnetic in some scenes and not others. Some places the effects are not convincing. Lightning plays a part in the story but never looks realistic. An animal head is also unreal-looking. There are continuity errors witha clock in one scene between Goldblum and Flanery. None of these are really bothersome. What did need more care were the last three or four minutes of the film, which just don't work.
There is a great deal being said about writer/director Victor Salva's background. On this subject I will say just that I can respect and enjoy Wagner's operatic cycle "The Ring of the Nibelungs" without condoning everything that Wagner ever did in his personal life. Salva has had a bad chapter of his life which is now over. His film POWDER rises above some mediocre acting and make-up to have several touching moments in a 1950s-style superman story. For the people in the right mood it gets a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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