Phenomenon (1996)

Phenomenon is a sentimental film and I like it anyway. John Travolta plays an ordinary, well-liked mechanic who becomes a genius overnight, and the film is much more interested in how his town reacts than in what he can do.

Jon Turteltaub directed it in 1996. I give it a 7.

The Premise

George Malley walks out of his own birthday party, sees a bright light in the sky and is knocked flat. After that he can’t sleep, reads three books an evening, learns Portuguese in twenty minutes and starts moving objects without touching them. His friends find it funny, then unsettling, and then the government turns up.

The Travolta Performance

Travolta plays George as the same decent man throughout, delighted by what’s happening and increasingly lonely inside it. He’s very good at showing a man who hasn’t changed being treated as though he has. His courtship of a standoffish single mother, played by Kyra Sedgwick, is sweet and unhurried.

The Rural Community Material

The small-town stuff is the best of it. Forest Whitaker is warm as his friend Nate, and Robert Duvall plays the local doctor who’s known him since he was a boy. The town’s shift from amusement to fear is well observed: they liked him better when he was ordinary.

The Medical Material

The explanation, when it comes, is that George has a brain tumor pressing on his cortex, stimulating parts of the brain nobody uses. It’s medically nonsense, and it works dramatically, because it means the abilities and the ending are the same thing. The film turns from a wish-fulfilment story into a story about a man with months to live.

The Sentiment

It lays it on thick at the end, with Eric Clapton on the soundtrack and a lot of significant weather. If you’re not in the mood, it’ll be too much. If you are, it earns most of it.

Craft Note

Is Phenomenon worth watching?

Yes, in the right mood. It’s a 7, a gentle film with a good central performance and more sadness than the trailer suggested.

Frequently Asked Questions