Review of Starman (1984) by Spangle — 05 Mar 2017

Many consider the 2016 film Midnight Special to be a rehash of Starman. While the comparison is fair, it definitely feels like a different film in terms of tone. That film is far more serious than director John Carpenter's Starman, which almost feels oddly tongue-in-cheek. It also feels oddly like an adult-version of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial throughout as it is a film about an alien that does not speak English who learns about the power of love from a human as he evades the government and tries to get back to his people in time, only to then board the ship at the end following a sentimental goodbye with the one he loves. Now, as I recently expressed, I am not a huge fan of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Seeing it rehashed with some truly odd moments tossed in is hardly my idea of a good time, but Carpenter does always make things feel oddly comical and thus, Starman winds up being enjoyable even if it not my kind of film.

That said, this review will undoubtedly largely focus on the negatives. One such negative is the sentimentality. An opportunity to explore grief through the eyes of Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen), a woman who just lost her husband and is now thrust into being the guardian of an alien who has taken the form of her late husband Scott (Jeff Bridges), the film instead goes for sentimentality via cliche. The alien retains Scott's looks and feelings, even if it lacks the vocabulary of Scott. Trying to be romantic, the film often defies logic with Jenny just staring at his demonic hellspawn as it turns into her husband and then quickly accepting that it is an alien. Though initially trying to escape, she soon grows love this fish-out-of-water and seeks to protect him from those who cause him harm, while also having sex with him and becoming pregnant with his baby. Oddly, that weird sequence is predictable, as are moments of them escaping, resurrecting, and more that are foreshadowed throughout and contribute to a largely tight, if incredibly trite film. This is a film built upon cliches that tries to distract via its sentimentality and heartbreaking portrayal of a woman given a second chance with her husband. But, Starman simply lacks the nuance and ability to make that romance really click. It always just feels oddly creepy like Jenny just succumbed to her Stockholm syndrome and gave into the alien because it looked like Scott.

The sentimentality in Starman largely comes from the dialogue. Waxing nostalgic about how great humanity is, the film may call us savages from time-to-time and a primitive species to boot, but the alien in Scott Hayden's body quickly learns what is so great about Earth: love and beauty. Together both make this a life worth living and one that is easy to feel nostalgic about, even if you just arrived here and did not bother to learn English before embarking on a groundbreaking trek to Earth. If they are truly an advanced species, one would have to assume they would know how to get a hold of ways to learn the language needed to have discourse wit humans. That aside though, the film's cloying sentimentality begs the audience to be swept up in the simple beauties of life, but is simply too on-the-nose and forced to actually come off. Instead of telling the audience about it all, show it to us.

The film's cliches also rear its ugly head towards the end. Having to get to Arizona in three days or else his species will leave him behind, he is constantly stopped by the government. Weirdly hostile despite inviting the aliens to Earth, the military literally opens fire on the alien and Jenny, trying to kill both. Theoretically, it is to study the alien's body, but still, lighting him up with bullets will hardly make than an easy proposition. The comically over-the-top military action is both a commentary on how we would likely reject an alien arriving (no matter how much we want them) and a tired cliche. Having the military and government invite and then reject the alien had been done to death by 1984 (forget it by 2017) and it is just grating to watch the film go through the motions. A largely inventive premise just devolves into a hail of bullets from military guns like any number of films before it, which is a shame.

That said, Jeff Bridges is terrific. He is funny, energetic, and does a great job as the alien. He is unassuming and a true everyman in this film, turning in a truly magnetic performance. Alongside him, Karen Allen is a good as ever, though not hard to do considering her limited leading lady filmography. That said, she is good here. As with every Carpenter film, Starman has a lot of fun with these that is incredibly infectious, even if entirely odd, which certainly helps make the film an entertaining experience. Technically, the film is also quite strong with a terrific score from Jack Nitzsche, though films scored by Carpenter himself always seem to turn out better in my eyes.