If you're like me, the ads for "Deep Impact" are a turn off. At first glance, it meets out need to reinforce our superior place in the universe, or as Will Smith so aptly put it in Independence Day 4, to "Whoop ET's butt." The plot of "Deep Impact" turns our attention skyward, but this time to focus on a colossal comet on a collision course with the earth. But there's more to this latest offering from Spielberg's slick new Dreamworks enterprize.

        There are formulaic aspects of "Deep Impact" but for the most part, the real story comes to light in spite of the restrictive "summer disaster flick" genre that hangs over its head. Morgan Freeman, for example, plays the President of the United States with incredible dignity. He's smart, well-informed, and most paternal. His voice of sanity and control works against everything we have come to expect from Hollywood. Hence bold maverick behavior is kept to a minimum, and we're left with a convincing morality tale, if not an eschatological treatise.

        Skillfully designed to lure you into its web, the movie begins without credits, so we have no clue which stars will guide us into this tangled tale. Soon we meet Tea Leone--a gopher in a television station sent to investigate an affair that leads to much more. Far from the dopey Mary Tyler Moore style journalist of her recent sitcom, Tea is the everyman figure of the movie. Her character's name, aptly enough, is Jenny Lerner--she learns, and we learn with her.

        I'm loath to say too much, since a striking feature of the movie is the surprise element inherent within it. But the most interesting feature of the film is the emphasis on human values. "Deep Impact" is good entertainment on all kinds of levels. Action, adventure, morality, and even quite the tear jerker, I happily recommend that this film may even live up to it's own ponderous title.

        Home || Complete list of reviews