Subject: REVIEW: PHENOMENON (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Mark R. Leeper)
Date: 8 Jul 1996 14:52:39 GMT

PHENOMENON
                      A film review by Mark R. Leeper
                       Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper

               Capsule: John Travolta undergoes a brain-boost
          connected to a strange light he sees in the sky.
          As his intelligence increases he and his world each
          see the other in different ways.  This is a film
          that draws heavily on Daniel Keyes's FLOWERS FOR
          ALGERNON.  It is a gentle and often compelling film
          but it becomes muddled just when it should be
          getting to the point.  To some extent it is a
          vanity piece for John Travolta.  Rating: +1 (-4 to
          +4)

     George Malley (played by John Travolta) is someone who just gets
by in life.  He is a good auto mechanic and a decent gardener, but not
a whole lot more and he has few friends.  He would like to win the
favor of a single mother of two children, Lace Pennamin (Kyra
Sedgewick), but she is just as determined not to become involved with
him.  On the night of his 37th birthday he is looking at the sky and
sees a bright flash of light that knocks him over.  Suddenly the
relationships of things become much more clear to him.  He is able to
play a winning game of chess for the first time.  He finds that the
Spanish he was trying to learn is suddenly very easy for him, he can
read two or three books a day--whatever he tries is easy for him.  Soon
he discovers he has the power to feel the waves that foretell the
coming of earthquakes and can even will objects to move.  The one thing
that he cannot do is win over Lace, the woman he loves.  The more he
tries to win her over the more stubborn and bewildered she becomes.
George has two constant friends.  Nate Pope (Forest Whitaker) is a
similarly lonely friend whose lot, George tries to improve.  The other
is a local physician (Robert Duvall) who is like a foster father for
George.  With some of the strange new abilities and his innocent genius
he has he is able to win over friends.  He makes himself a hero, at
least temporarily, but soon he finds that his new powers also breed a
certain suspicion. To make matters worse he decodes a cryptic signal he
hears on short-wave and responds with his own messages in the same
code.  This only brings him to the attention of the government who take
him into custody to study his strange skills.  In spite of his best
efforts he finds himself becoming more and more of a freak in his own
town.

     John Travolta carries out his role sufficient charm, though not as
much as the script really calls for him to have. But for some minor
descents into frustration and neurosis, he remains a simple, pleasant
and likable genius. He is getting a little old for boyish, winning
roles.  Kyra Sedgewick is also likable but brings even less of an edge
to her role than does Travolta.  Travolta's unflagging devotion to this
woman should presumably be endearing, but apart from a minor physical
attractiveness there is little in her role that makes her seem so worth
the effort.  Robert Duvall is along playing a physician who is almost
like a father to the Travolta character.  He seems to be there often as
only a sounding board and a script device.  Duvall is too good of an
actor not to give a good performance but there is little new for him to
do.

     What carries PHENOMENON is the subject of human intelligence and
writer Gerald DiPego's idea of what a big increase in IQ brings to a
small man in a small town.  George's ingenuity and his ideas of small
projects and experiments are enjoyable, but toward the end of the film
the point of what is going on becomes muddled.  George seems to pop in
and out of adjustment in ways that are not nearly as interesting as the
well-developed Charly Gordon in Daniel Keyes's FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON.
That novel set the standard to measure stories of intelligence increase
by and this story comes a poor second.  (Of course, the film version
CHARLY also misses the potential of the story badly and tries too hard
to be a 1960s mod film.  A faithful adaptation of the novel might be a
much bigger service to the viewer than this film had even the potential
to be.)

     This is a story not without its interesting moments, but it needed
less of a fuzzy edge and less of an admiration for good sweet old
George Malley.  I would give this film a flat +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					[email-masked]
					Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper