Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 1-October-06
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)

I have long been fascinated by how different modes of communication spark different levels of honesty, expression, and interest. Like when I was a kid I eagerly chatted with my deaf aunt over the TTY not because we were close but because I hadn’t engaged in conversation using a machine before. Or like some people will tell you things in a letter that they’d never say to your face. The mode of communication affects the nature of communication.

I thought about this (again with relish) while revisiting the ’80s adventure-comedy “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” which concerns a bank transfer clerk who becomes involved in espionage solely because she’s a friendly presence on a computer network. The movie seems almost quaint in depicting the wonder of finding a voiceless, faceless someone on the other end of an invisible connection, yet before the dominion of the World Wide Web this probably did feel like a revelation. In having this form of contact drive the plot, the story evokes both a wariness of technology and the essence of human sympathy. Reach out and touch someone and you just might save a life.

Not that the movie is a sap fest. Whoopi Goldberg stars as the bank clerk, Terry Doolittle, and she’s a mixture of sweet and rowdy like the story as a whole. Lonely but gregarious, Terry charms her coworkers (including Jon Lovitz, Carol Kane, and Phil Hartman) and swoons over romantic movies but also holds her ground and drops the F-bomb whenever the going gets rough. This happens with increasing frequency after a British spy reaches out to her claiming to be trapped in an eastern European country without means of escape. With the tingly anticipation of a woman on a chat line, Terry agrees to help him by trotting off to the British consulate (where she’s aided by Annie Potts), the spy’s apartment (where she’s followed by Jim Belushi), and the city docks (where she witnesses a murder). She puts herself in dangerous (and amusing) situations to help a man she has never met.

Admittedly, the situations are preposterous and preclude any real tension. (Terry has remarkably good luck and is occasionally assisted by a new colleague played by Stephen Collins.) But Goldberg’s earthy cuteness and the allure of her mysterious correspondent are hard to resist. There’s a warmhearted aura to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” due to its yearning heroine and her chance at making a worthwhile connection. The movie makes you feel warm and fuzzy because it speaks to you in a particular way.

Copyright © 2006 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.