# Deep Impact (1998)

### reviewed by
Paul-Michael Agapow

    [film] "Deep Impact"
    A Postview, copyright 1998 p-m agapow

Or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bolide". An enraged comet attempts to land on Tea Leoni. America gets all mussed up. Apparently the rest of the world is a little put out too.

Two years ago, it was extreme weather. Last year, it was severe geology. This year, it's cosmic impact films. In light of such obvious trend-following, a few fears are justified. Are these going to be good films or just market-stuffers? Now, little Steven Spielberg would never give us something like "Independence Day" or "Starship Troopers", would he?

No, but he might give us "The Colour Purple".

This is how it goes: young Leo Biederman discovers a new comet that is intent on squishing the United States (and incidentally destroying the rest of the world too). Somehow, the entire astronomical community of the world is gagged until ace reporter Tea Leoni (showing a startling ability to play the same character she does on TV) comes snooping around. The Prez (Morgan Freeman) crumbles and makes a nation-wide announcement: "We're all going to die." The nation, as represented by a whole lot of B-grade TV actors competitive underplaying the "oh shucks, we're just folks" shtick, show concern by wrinkling their foreheads.

But it's all OK, the government is going to take care of everything. Strangely enough, this isn't interpreted as a reason for widespread panic. No, how else do you defeat a rogue comet but by sending up a crack crew of astronauts, including one called "Spurgeon Tanner" (played by a curiously mummified Robert Duvall). Hell, if I was a comet, that would throw me off-course.

And so it goes. We can tell there is civil unrest, because the houses of a lot of white, middle-class people get messed up. Tea realises that only people who are reconciled with their family are allowed to die and leave the film. So she goes and mooches around with her father (Maximilian Schell, looking like he's been attacked with a bicycle pump) and her mother (Vanessa Redgrave). Later, if you look away for a second, Redgrave just seems to dematerialise in the middle of the film.

Meanwhile the astronauts have stopped giggling at Spurgeon's name and realised that at least he has a character with more than one dimension. Angered by this, one astronaut (aggressive guy) says that Spurgeon is too old and should be making nostalgic movies with Laura Dern. Russian guy, black guy and female guy nod wisely. Other guy realises that he has so little screen time, he must be scheduled to die later. And indeed, after they blast-off, move s-l-o-w-l-y through their ship to show you it's in zero gravity, they land on the comet and other guy dies. (He dies after calculating that on an 11-km rock, gravity isn't just low, as the scriptwriters apparently believe - it's nonexistent.) Aggressive guy and black guy get injured. Cowed by this, Russian guy and female guy let Spurgeon take over the mission.

Back on the ground, the government is selecting a million random people to stick in a set of caves in Missouri for the duration of the comet-induced nuclear winter. Finally people can see the government is out of control. (Missouri? Are you kidding me?) About 30 mildly aggressive demonstrators gather outside the caves to protest. (I assume they're demonstrating - or maybe they've just had too much coffee.) But now there are TWO comets, and while we might survive the first - which makes a high-pitched buzz as it moves through space - the deep rumble of the other tells us we're in trouble. The Prez orders all the nuclear missiles to be fired offscreen at the comet. Later he tells us they failed. (Just between you and me, I don't there ever were any missiles. The Prez has probably been making out like a bandit on those Strategic Defence appropriations for years, occasionally staging a few accidents in Omaha silos to keep Congress from looking too closely.) Subsequently a lot of people hug and make up just before they are killed, although not in any sort of up-close and icky way.

It would be churlish to deny there are some genuinely stirring moments in "Deep Impact". In particular, those scenes involving Vanessa Redgrave and her character's realisation of, and resignation to, her own death are fairly powerful. There is also some nice model work in the SFX and it is refreshing to see a film that doesn't glorify in its own bodycount. However these are severely weakened by heavy-handed storytelling (alternately underlining or shortcutting the plot), an oppressively omnipresent soundtrack (forever whispering in your ear "this is a stirring emotional moment"), and indifferent acting. It's not a bad picture, but it's an irritatingly simplistic one, almost claustrophobic in its narrow worldview. [**/ok] and "The Comet Purple" on the Sid and Nancy scale.

"Deep Impact" Released 1998. Directed by Mimi Leder. Produced by Steven Spielberg, Richard D. Zanuck et al. Written by Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin. Music by James Horner. Starring Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan Freeman, Leelee Sobieski, Maximilian Schell, James Cromwell, Blair Underwood.

-- Paul-Michael Agapow (agapow@computer.org), La Trobe Uni "There is no adventure, there is no romance, there is only trouble and desire."

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