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"Phenomenon" on Steroids
by DougS (movies profile)
Mar 16, 2008
What if your body were suddenly 30 years younger? What if you could absorb a book without reading it? What if you could talk with your alter ego, who was actually right there with you? In telling the story of a 70 year old linguistics professor who is struck by lightning, and, far from dying, goes on to live a very charmed and unusual life, Francis Ford Coppola explores these questions and more.
This film appears to have two perfectly reasonable story lines: a love vs. passionate career conflict story; and a sci-fi extraterrestrial story. But by shuffling these two stories and their images together like two decks of playing cards, Coppola comes up with a distinct third story that is always just barely reasonable and always unpredictable. That exploration of these questions about forces beyond human consciousness has unexpected consequences was not unexpected; what was unexpected was the conclusion. Is Coppola really pessimistic about humanity?
This film never races and it never drags. I was engaged from start to finish. Coppola has created the ultimate in intimacy between a character and the audience. The marvelous imagery takes you into a man's mind. You dream with him. You wonder how you'd react if you were there.
See this film. It may be the last we have from Coppola, or it may be the beginning of an entirely new line of his work. |
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