Wolff rating: NOT BAD
Plot summary: Man sees strange light and becomes strangely more intelligent, growing smarter every day, despite his rural, small-town surroundings.
Biased, pithy comments: After spending a few months watching low-budget quirky independent movies, running into a syrupy Hollywood picture is a real surprise. With beautiful music, acting, sound mixing (ah, the glories of surround sound), cinematography, and pacing, it would almost seem like heaven after so much muddled wannabe stuff. But, despite all of the above in presentation, the movie itself runs up against two flaws. First, it is so wildly implausible (even ignoring the conceit of the concept); without giving away the MacGuffin, let's just say Berkeley's faculty has *never* been intimidated by anyone, and if you're within daytrip distance to San Francisco, you'd have gotten your MRI and CAT scan pretty much a day after you started showing abnormal psychological symptoms. Overlooking that, this is an old, old story that has been covered in other movies, books, and literature, and given how obviously Hollywood it is (complete with the faithful multiethnic community, perfectly honed plot structure, and simple pacing), it's pretty trite. If you've not seen this story before, it's beautifully done (outside of the plot holes mentioned above) and nicely acted (Travolta, Whitaker, and Sedgwick are all great, like a family).
Other Notes: Very painful soundtrack moments---like ``I Know What You Did Last Summer,'' it is awash with want-them-to-be-hits songs blasted over the proceedings.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: John Travolta, Kyra Sedwick, Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall.
Directed by: Jon Turteltaub