Date: Fri 22-May-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Quick Words:

Playing-Impact-Freeman-Wood

Full Text:

NOW PLAYING: "Deep Impact" Has Little To None

By Trey Paul Alexander III

There was an old Hollywood adage that any movie star worth their salt does at

least one western. These days it seems that the role of president of the

United States is the one to get on your resume. With the recent arrival of

Deep Impact , the first of two summer movies about a comet hurtling towards a

panic-stricken planet Earth (the other is Armageddon , due in July), Morgan

Freeman becomes the latest actor to step into the Oval Office. But the

President isn't the main character of interest in Deep Impact , and that's

part of the problem. Despite the impression the film made on the box office in

its opening weekend (its $41.2 million set a record for the highest

non-holiday May opening ever), it is quite fulfilling as an escapist, "What

if?"-style disaster thriller.

The President doesn't have to be the main character here, but someone does.

The closest Deep Impact comes to having a central character is an MSNBC news

reporter (Tea Leoni) who breaks the story about the comet: she thinks she's on

the trail of a Congressional scandal story and ends up with a doozy of a scoop

that lands her a plum position as anchorperson. Otherwise, the movie is an

assortment of individuals ranging from the kid who spotted the comet (Elijah

Wood) to the astronauts sent to stop the comet (including Robert Duvall)...

and that doesn't include the families of all the above (and believe me,

they're all in here!).

As a disaster flick, Deep Impact details the threat of a speeding asteroid the

size of New York City heading directly towards earth. The film gives us plenty

of doom-filled forecasts on what its collision with our plant would cause:

tidal waves, clouds of dust, extinction of all plant and animal life, etc.

Thus one is made to expect the usual diet of summer movie ingredients: a

cacophony of sights (explosions, computer-generated effects, overall mayhem)

and sounds (loud, souped-up sound effects and pounding, digital soundtrack).

Instead, we're treated to a cacophony of characters in which very few gain our

sympathy and none really draw us into the drama of a predicament that puts

nearly 250 million Americans in jeopardy.

One of the criticisms of Independence Day , the flick that gave us such

mesmerizing images of destruction as the Empire State Building and the White

House splintering into millions of pieces, was it was so caught up in the joy

of its mayhem that it barely gave pause to consider the death toll it was

racking up. The opposite seems true for Deep Impact . It is so mired in a

glum, depressing tone that it's difficult to cheer on the increasing heroic

efforts mustered by the characters within the film.

Also, as directed by Mimi Leder (an "er" veteran who also helmed The

Peacemaker ), Deep Impact is surprisingly uninvolving emotionally, despite a

plethora of weeping scenes and tear-filled good-byes. There is little

substance given to what is inherently an intriguing and engrossing situation.

When the President declares a national lottery to see who gets to share in the

country's limited shelter space (and automatically excludes individuals over a

certain age), we never see the anguish such a decision must wreak on this

person, nor do we get a real sense of the outcry that would ensue after such

an announcement were made.

Too bad. Some fine actors and an interesting premise are wasted in a

misguided, if decently executed, effort. It's a shame they couldn't do it all

over again. Wait! There's always Armageddon .

Deep Impact is rated PG-13. It contains a fair amount of profanity but little

violence. The finale, however bloodless, does contain intense scenes of

massive mayhem and devastation.