PHENOMENON
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw
Starring: John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall. Screenplay: Gerald DiPego. Director: Jon Turtletaub. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw. Opens Wednesday, July 3 in wide release.
Jon Turtletaub has a quality as a director which seems to be fairly uncommon lately: patience. He had surprise successes with his last two films, 1993's COOL RUNNINGS and last year's WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, and generally those successes were attributed to the Disney underdog formula and Sandra Bullock's rising star, respectively. While those factors certainly played a significant role, I also believe that audiences appreciated a style which told simple stories simply. Turtletaub's direction gave you the impression that he felt he was doing his job best if he stood back, allowed his narrative to unfold, and didn't draw attention to himself. That is a refreshing perspective in an era of music video auteurs, but apparently it also can be taken a bit too far. PHENOMENON finds Turtletaub bringing his leisurely manner to a story which, somewhere along the line, needed a bit more energy.
PHENOMENON stars John Travolta as George Malley, a simple auto mechanic in the small Northern California town of Harmon. On his 37th birthday, as he is leaving a party at a bar, George receives a rather unexpected gift: a flash of light from the sky which literally knocks him off his feet. When he rouses himself, he finds that he is a changed man. He devours book at the rate of three a day, begins experiments in agriculture and engineering and finds he is able to move objects with a thought. The town doctor (Robert Duvall) is unable to explain the phenomenon, and George's abilities begin to inspire fear and concern in the people of Harmon. Only George's best friend Nate (Forest Whitaker) and a woman named Lace (Kyra Sedgwick) seem able to accept the amazing abilities which have made George a threat in the eyes of many.
I had feared that PHENOMENON would be yet another tiresome spin on "benevolent stranger among us" tales like E.T., STARMAN and last year's odious POWDER. The latter was an example of the worst kind, the kind of film whose sole purpose seems to be to make us feel better about ourselves for being so much more understanding than the oppressive, narrow-minded cowards in the film. There are whispers of that theme in PHENOMENON, but screenwriter Gerald DiPego's story is much more focused on George's reaction to the changes in himself than on the reaction of others to those changes. John Travolta turns in a strong, textured performance as George, a man whose mind has become so active that it risks overwhelming him. He is like a man who has awakened one morning to find that he now thinks in a different language; every attempt to communicate with the people who once were his friends becomes a frustrating ordeal.
The moments when PHENOMENON does begin to feel like a "benevolent stranger" film are rare, but they are also rather telling. There are evil government types in PHENOMENON who want to study George or use him to gather foreign intelligence, there is an evil doctor (Richard Kiley) who wants to cut up George's brain while he is still using it, and there is a scene where a mob starts to turn on George, but Turtletaub only makes a nodding acknowledgment of these conventions. The villainous Feds and scientists are only bit players, not really serving to drive the narrative, and the "mob" is more like a rather insistent group of autograph-seekers. Turtletaub seems uncomfortable with such dramatic devices, and his sense of restraint is admirable. The problem is that he and DiPego really don't provide much in place of those devices to generate conflict.
A love story between George and Lace eventually occupies a lot of time, and it is carefully developed, with Sedgwick playing an abandoned mother of two trying to recover her faith in men. It's a perfectly sweet romance, but it underscores the lack of passion in PHENOMENON; the big moment between George and Lace has her washing and cutting his hair. A film like PHENOMENON demands more moments of catharsis, opportunities to feel deeply for the plight of the hero. Turtletaub banks on the rosy glow of Phedon Papamichael's cinematography, Thomas Newman's jaunty score and the fine performances of his cast (including a lovably eccentric Forest Whitaker) to generate the good will needed to carry PHENOMENON across the finish line. They carry it remarkably far, but as PHENOMENON neared the two hour mark, I began to wish Turtletaub had gone for a bit less serenity and a bit more urgency.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 genius species: 6.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~srenshaw
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