Review of Special (1967) by Steven B — 09 Apr 2009

Special was a dissapointment to me. Either I'm just really naive or the trailer was misleading, because I thought this was going to be a movie about a man who actually develops some supernatural powers.

But its all in his head...or is it? The story is about a man who signs on to take some experimental drugs that are supposed to increase one's sense of self confidence. Once he takes them he has hallucinations of having super abilities like levitation, telepathy, or walking through walls.

What others see is a man making a fool of himself. Soon he is being stalked by a limosuine driven by two men in suits. I'm kind of a fan of Michael Rappaport, and he does a brilliant job with this strange dramatic role.

Some of the other roles seemed miscast, or just written poorly. In particular, the two stoner comic book store clerks. They should have been comic relief, but they were just unappealing and annoying. There was also a romantic subplot that got halfway developed, but its resolution was either cut out of the script or edited out of the film.

The film gets really slow at some points, presumably so the audience can contemplate the deeper meaning of what's going on. I wonder if it was just to stretch out the running time of the movie because the scriptwriters couldn't flesh out a complete story.