Phenomenon, directed by Jon Turteltaub, starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Robert Duvall and Forest Whitaker was released in 1996 to mixed reviews from critics, though it went on to be a moderately successful film at the box office.
Sorry to sound like a Wikipedia excerpt but I thought I would just get the formal introduction to the movie out of the way. It works best, I thought, because this movie is and always will be a personal favorite of mine, for all informal reasons.
I saw this movie as a young teen, right around the time cable television was made available in my home. I was swept away by that vast sea of novel and exciting things. I remember the first few days or even weeks being something of a feverish dream of thrilling discoveries. All kinds of fascinating new channels, shows and avenues to explore.
I would wake up ready to immerse myself in this new found abundance of stimulus before I was forced to go to school, and when evening came I would rush home from school eager to do it all again.
Movies I had never heard or dreamed of, and television shows that tickled my fancy were all suddenly right there – just a few button pushes away.
And it was on one night of this curious period in my life, while enthusiastically browsing the channels that I chanced upon this movie.
Phenomenon.
The name caught my attention. It wasn't a movie I had heard of being mentioned anywhere in my youngish friend circles. To be fair, in those days that simply meant it didn't star Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Jet Li or a giant skyline altering monster of some kind.
The name Phenomenon itself seemed strange to me. It was a ‘science term’ from school. What could the movie be about, I wondered, and thus decided to halt my frantic channel surfing and give it some time to impress me.
And impress me it did, beyond my wildest hopes.
I had never watched a Hollywood movie like that. All my previous Hollywood experiences had been of grand productions with huge Michael Bay-ish explosions, monstrous awe-inspiring curiosities or just heart thumping over the top action.
This was… not that. I knew very little of Travolta and the rest of the cast were strangers to me as well.
This movie took my imagination and emotions for a ride that was maybe the very first time I experienced what could be called true movie magic. You know… that curious sensation of being flooded with a blend of sweet, powerful emotions as a result of letting your mind dive deep in to a film.
Phenomenon thus rooted itself in my memories and carved its space in my pantheon of favorite films. I have, of course, seen it many more times since and it still continues to bring me joy.
A little about the story and setting now.
George Malley (Travolta) is a small town mechanic. He lives an enviably simple and happy life with few worries. He is a single guy who lives by himself, but his community itself is a close knit one and most people in the small town are friends or acquaintances. A picturesque setting of semi-rural America, in other words, is what we’re offered as a backdrop to this tale.
George’s best friend is Nate Pope (Whitaker) and maybe the much older Doc Brunder (Duvall) to an extent. He is in love with a woman named Lace Pennamin (Sedgwick), though he has not yet fully confessed it to her. She keeps brushing him off due to her own issues with trust, stemming from a broken past. Lace is a mother of two children, and lives outside the town. As the plot unravels, we cannot help but wonder if this chosen isolation of hers from the people of the town, is also symbolic in certain ways. Her character while being a part of the community, is also decidedly different from them all.
This is where the real story begins.
On his 37th birthday, George has a good time partying with his friends at a local pub and as he walks out alone late at night, he sees something strange in the skies. A mysterious bright light that grows closer and closer, until in a brilliant flash it knocks him out. He wakes up the next day to slowly discover that things are… different.
George is now smarter. I mean, way smarter. From suddenly beating Doc Brunder easily in games of chess, his abilities just bloom at an astounding rate. His mind starts buzzing with a million ideas and breakthroughs the world hadn't thought of in a lot of areas. He starts reading more and more books to keep up with his insatiable thirst for knowing and figuring things out.
And then just like that, he finds out that he can now move things with his mind. Yes folks, we are talking telekinesis.
George shows Brunder what he can do, and the old country doctor is amazed and enthralled by all of this, almost like a kid who just found out that magic is real. He suggests though that George undergo further medical check-ups to make sure nothing is wrong with him.
George Malley struggles to contain his new found genius and his relationship with the world around him and the people in it, is put at odds. He tries to hold on to his reality as it was before all of this and even grows closer to Lace and her kids over some time.
A series of exciting and dramatically strange events unfold as the town and the U.S. Government become aware of Malley’s gifts. He however just wants to share with the world these ideas he has, which he is convinced will drastically improve everyone’s lives.
However, things don’t go as George hopes they will, and through all of this a deeper, moving love story evolves between him and Lace.
I will stop the synopsis here. I am not one for spoiling a great movie, and if I continue along these lines I fear I might.
Phenomenon does not appeal to me because of any particularly clever or obviously spectacular technical gimmickry employed in its making, now that I think about it. I mean no offense to the director or the cinematographer because both those aspects are solid in this film, but it is by and large the story itself and the great performances that make this movie a great one for me.
This is a story of pure wonder and imagination, no doubt, but it also showcases some of our baser instincts as social animals and it draws out in to the light that deep rooted fear of the unknown which sometimes over rides our humanity.
George Malley is the best of what we have to offer as human beings. He is the quintessential everyman and also an underdog, who rises above the depressing trenches of mediocrity that plagues most of us. Yet somehow he holds on to what is important in the larger scheme of things, with a passion and determination that is beyond many.
This could easily have been the fairytale of a man living out all our primal dreams and ambitions, standing tall as something more than a mortal. It would still certainly have been an interesting film, but this story transcends that lure of petty gratification and cheap thrills. Instead it shows us the disparity between the heights of our true potential and how we actually are.
It focuses on the diverse traits of human nature through the lenses of bonds like friendship and love.
In a way, one could say that this is a love story more than anything else. While the relationship of George and Lace invites you to witness the strength in the unconditional love between two people, you could also say that this story is about George’s love for humanity as a whole.
In conclusion, Phenomenon, despite whatever the official critical and popular verdict on it is, remains till date one of my most beloved movies. I am grateful that I got to enjoy this movie before adulthood jaded my perspective in myriad ways.
If you haven’t seen this simple, beautiful and elegantly crafted movie I highly recommend it to you. If it does not give your imagination flight with the topics it touches upon, it might at the very least ignite a sweet warmth in your heart that you will be glad for.
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