Review

Review Date: 17-February-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Jumper (2008)

"Jumper" tells — or rather, half-tells — the story of a young man who discovers at age 15 that he can teleport himself anywhere he wants to go. Escaping a crummy home life, David Rice pops into a bank vault, grabs bushels of cash, and heads into the wide world to spend his fortune. Eight years later he is a globetrotting hipster who picks up chicks in London and is home in New York before they emit their first post-coital snore. His surfboard drips Caribbean water on the shores of Fiji. He eats fresh deli hoagies on top of the Sphinx. He never has to worry that the TV remote is out of reach. As played by Hayden Christensen, that irksome enigma of an actor (is he subtle or incompetent? attractive or a joke? I cannot decide), David is a pinup for feckless hedonism, the embodiment of lots of people's dream.

Yet the guy who has everything or can get at anything still has his share of troubles. First, he pines for his childhood sweetheart Millie (Rachel Bilson, whose state of emaciation made me want to call some L.A. hospital and demand a home-visit intervention) and he is afraid that he can't go home again. Second, he becomes the target of a vicious mystery man (Samuel L. Jackson) who knows his secret and wields a high-tech arsenal to kill him.

I would be willing to bet that much of the book on which "Jumper" is based did not make it to the film. One can certainly see why it was picked up by Hollywood, as today's entertainment media favor split-second lurches between one image or idea to another just as David flits around the screen. But the bare-bones fact of his unusual gift is not enough, and the movie's humdrum plot about saving his skin and getting the girl leaves the juicy questions unanswered. (Perhaps out of hope for a sequel?) For example: how did David turn out so well adjusted when any other teenager with parental issues, cause for guilt, and a freakish trait would have become a wreck when left to himself? At least the other jumper David meets (Jamie Bell) seems socially inept. And what is up with the sect to which Jackson's character belongs? The fact that his hair is dyed white does not adequately describe the weirdness going on there. Apparently he and his ilk have been persecuting jumpers since the Dark Ages for usurping the powers of God. Why not show Jackson performing a ritual or torture in front of a cross? Fanatics are more interesting than cranky G-men, and he is one of the blander villains ever seen. Finally, what is the point of including David's mother (Diane Lane) in the tale? Why should we believe that (a) she would have married his hick father in the first place, and (b) after her experience with David she would have failed to rethink the prejudice which aligns her to his enemies?

All subjects that might have made "Jumper" intense or unique are ignored. Instead we are given a moderately nifty visual experience in what amounts to one long chase scene. If director Doug Liman or somebody else is going to make a sequel, I hope that jumper history and mythology are explored. Hop to it!

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.