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By Newsweek Editors
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IT'S NO COINCIDENCE THAT THE NAME OF Phenomenon's hero, George Malley, sounds a lot like George Bailey, the hero of ""It's a Wonderful Life.'' ""Phenomenon'' aims to be a kind of New Age Capra movie. From its mythical small-town America setting, which has more in common with back-lot movie towns than any actual place, to its inspirational message about human potential, this fantasy holds itself up as the spiritual antidote to the summer's crash-and-burn spectacles.
Here's the hook. On his 37th birthday, George (John Travolta), a sweet, single, well-liked auto mechanic in the town of Harmon, wanders into the street from his birthday party and is struck by a mysterious bolt of light. Afterwards, he's transformed. Suddenly, this formerly simple guy is speaking Spanish, reading three books a day, his brain so excited he stays up sleepness nights inventing gizmos for his garden. And that's not all: he's even possessed of telekinetic powers, which he modestly shows off to his dumbfounded pal Nate (Forest Whitaker) and his amazed doctor (Robert Duvall). But through it all, George remains the same swell, selfless guy.
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The struck-by-genius concept isn't new (remember ""Charly''?) but it has a certain undeniable appeal. The question is, where do you go with it? Writer Gerald DiPego and director John (""While You Were Sleeping'') Turteltaub hedge their bets. On the one hand, they want to tell a love story: George is in dogged pursuit of Lace (Kyra Sedgwick), a wary, commitment-shy single mom, a romance that seems to take forever to blossom. On the other, they see it as a story of a martyred outcast (shades of ""Powder''), for the folks in Harmon react to their old friend's new brilliance with fear and loathing. He's even arrested and detained by the FBI, who view him as a security risk, though this halfhearted subplot is quickly dropped. Then, in the third act, when the mystical explanation of George's genius is replaced by a medical one, the movie turns into a tear-jerker about the demise of a secular saint. When you get too smart, I guess you have to die.
Soft to the point of squishiness, ""Phenomenon'' is rescued from terminal bathos by Travolta's radiant conviction. Whether it's the Scientologist in him that connects to the movie's Be-All-You-Can-Be philosophy or just his pure actor's instincts, he gives off such a sunny glow you can't help but smile back. Facing off against a smug scientist who wants to study his brain (""That's not me, that's my brain'') he delivers a sermon about the human spirit that in any other actor's hands could have been an embarrassment. Travolta plays it with such unforced, childlike enthusiasm you want to cheer.
This gauzy pipe dream, however, is ultimately too timid for its own good, as if the filmmakers themselves were afraid of deeply exploring the ramifications of extreme intelligence. American to its core, the movie concocts its genius hero only, in the end, to tell us it's what in your heart that counts. Turteltaub would have been wise to trust our intelligence a bit more.
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