Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 15-July-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Deep Impact (1998)

In the final moments of "Deep Impact" a grizzled astronaut (Robert Duvall) tells his comrades, "We'll never be closer to home than we are right now." This wonderful line sums up the experience of the film. Unlike "Armageddon," the other asteroid-about-to-smash-Earth movie of 1998, "Deep Impact" is a drama instead of a thrill ride. What makes it special is how it thoughtfully imagines what might happen if the worst were to happen without ever losing its optimism.

With the exception of the President, the sampling of Americans who form the story are average enough to signify the country at large (even the astronauts, who are plain family folk). Youth and the future are represented by a high school student who discovers a "star" in a place where it shouldn't be (Elijah Wood) and by the girl next door whom he loves (Leelee Sobieski). The main adult character is an ambitious TV reporter (Téa Leoni) who stumbles upon the biggest story of her time or all time. Following a lead about the resignation of a prominent politician, she realizes that what appeared to be a hushed-up bit of adultery is in fact the White House's attempt to hide the possible extinction of the human race. This earns her a promotion but also makes her a public commentator on the darkest hours in history.

"Deep Impact" lives up to its title by offering both heroic sacrifice and the horrifying consequences of the world being about to end. Indeed, the good and the bad are expertly balanced for full effect (and the bad is never too bad). One of the most moving scenes finds Leoni reading a proclamation about a national lottery that will assign one million men and women to the Ark, a cave network in Missouri, from which everyone over 50 is excluded. This means her lonely mother (Vanessa Redgrave) and estranged father (Maximilian Schell), along with many millions of others, are likely to die. Other powerful scenes involve the President, whose aura of strength and courage only Morgan Freeman could supply. (Such a noble leader is by far the most fanciful element of the plot.) You really sympathize with the man who has to inform his populace that the astronauts' and other attempts to divert the asteroid have failed — thereby acknowledging that the entire eastern seaboard will disappear. Large or small, the moments when these people grapple with imminent catastrophe feel very personal. That each manages to salvage some connection to others becomes the key to "Deep Impact." It turns out the crisis is not the worst that could happen but the device by which the characters find the best within themselves.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.