The miraculous rebirth of John Travolta as an A-list star after years of neglect continues with his performance in this gentle fantasy, which forms a sort of mirror, image of Forrest Gump. A couple of years ago a film like Phenomenon would probably have been tagged as a Kevin Costner vehicle, but it's a much more agreeable proposition with Travolta in the central role. The film-makers set out their stall from an early stage, self-consciously invoking the ghost of Frank Capra.
Travolta plays George Malley. (shades of James Stewart's George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life), an easy-going car mechanic in a small northern Californian town. George is a regular, good-hearted kind of guy, happy to be surrounded by his friends and with a crush on a recently-arrived divorcee (Kyra Sedgewick). On his 37th birthday, though, George sees a flash of light in the sky and briefly faints.
Returning to consciousness, he gradually realises that he has become a genius, capable of learning an entire language in half an hour, inventing new forms of organic agriculture and figuring out how to predict earthquakes. He also discovers that he has developed powers of telekinesis, the ability to move objects with his mind.
Turteltaub, whose last film was the romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping, succeeds in creating a warm, affectionate portrait of American small-town life without being too sickly-sweet or sentimental. In this he is helped by cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, who bathes the northern Californian landscape in soft, golden light, and by solid supporting performances from Robert Duvall, Forest Whitaker and Sedgewick.
But, but, but ... without giving anything away, it should be said that Phenomenon takes a deeply unsatisfying turn in its last 40 minutes. The mystery of Travolta's condition is suddenly resolved in a most unsatisfactory way and the film abruptly changes gear and direction, losing all its magic. From a classical fantasy, it suddenly turns into a medical weepie of the worst kind.
Not only is this badly realised, it's a wanton waste of the goodwill built up over the first two-thirds of the film. Travolta's character becomes a more insubstantial nebulous figure and Sedgewick moves to the fore. This is a terrible misjudgment on the part of the film-makers, as if they really hadn't a clue how to end the movie, and it leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
Showing with Phenomenon is Brendan Bourke's 14-minute short film, Fishing The Sloe-Black River, starring John Kavanagh, Eileen Colgan and Frank Kelly. Based on a short story by Colum McCarin, Bourke's film is a poetic meditation on the effect of emigration on the ageing inhabitants of a small Irish town. The first Irish short to be shot in Cinemascope, it features some striking cinematography from Seamus Deasy and music from Maire Brennan of Clannad.
If its symbolism is somewhat heavy-handed, and it falls prey to some of the sub-McGahernisms which plague so many Irish shorts, it's still good to see it receiving a nationwide release, a rare occurrence these days.
