Subject: REVIEW: POWDER

From: [email-masked] (James Berardinelli)
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 18:55:32 GMT

POWDER
                       A film review by James Berardinelli
                        Copyright 1995 James Berardinelli

RATING (0 TO 10):  6.3

United States, 1995
U.S. Availability: 10/27/95 (wide)
Running Length: 1:51
MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Mature themes, mild profanity)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Cast: Sean Patrick Flanery, Mary Steenburgen, Lance Henriksen,
      Jeff Goldblum, Brandon Smith, Missy Crider
Director: Victor Salva
Producers: Roger Birnbaum and Daniel Grodnik
Screenplay: Victor Salva
Cinematography: Jerzy Zielinski
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
U.S. Distributor: Hollywood Pictures

     Imagine EDWARD SCISSORHANDS under the control of a mainstream
director rather than someone offbeat and eccentric like Tim Burton.  The
result would have been just another motion picture about a prototypical
misfit trying to find his niche--a movie with a lot of manipulation
and too many easy answers.  POWDER is such a film.  Unmistakably
designed with teenagers in mind, this movie presses numerous emotional
hotbuttons in a manner that is as obvious as it is skillful.

     On some levels, the film works.  It tells a modern-day fable with
enough pseudo-scientific gobbledygook to make the scenario sound almost
plausible.  POWDER is well-paced and effective at getting the audience
to care about the principal personality.  It's likely that anyone who
has ever felt like an outsider will see an element of himself or herself
in the title character, as essayed by Sean Patrick Flanery.  It's easy
to sympathize and identify with the loner.

     However, while doing all that competently, POWDER consistently
avoids taking chances.  The script, which backs away from real dramatic
conflict, lacks courage, preferring Hollywood-type scenarios to
something grittier.  The title character always does the right thing.
No matter how unjustly he's treated, he never lashes out.  The film
stays away from exploring the real ugliness of intolerance, instead
relying upon stereotypes like the spiteful bully and his ignorant
friends.  We know from the beginning how these characters are going to
react in any situation, and never feel anything for them because no
attempt is made to give them humanity.  In this entire film, Powder is
the only multi-dimensional personality.  Everyone else, good or bad, is
merely filling a stock role.

     Powder's real name is Jeremy Reed.  He was raised and educated by
his grandmother and grandfather in their small house in Texas--no
friends and no schools.  Powder is an albino, with the characteristic
white skin and pink eyes, but that's not all that's unusual about him--
his body has no hair and he possesses "the most advanced intellect in
the history of humankind."  He also has a strange affinity for
electricity.  Radios and televisions don't work around him and, during
thunderstorms, he acts like a lightning rod.

     When Powder's grandparents die, he is taken to a local institution
to live with other boys his age.  There, the strangeness of his
appearance creates an almost-universal sense of ill-will and unease.
Only a few people attempt to get to know Powder: Donald Ripley (Jeff
Goldblum), a science teacher at the local high school; Jesse Caldwell
(Mary Steenburgen), the woman who runs the institution; Sheriff Barnum
(Lance Henriksen), the chief law officer of Wheaton City; and Lindsey
(Missy Crider), the sole person of Powder's age who isn't afraid of him.

     Director Victor Salva extracts a few noteworthy moments from his
own run-of-the-mill script.  Powder's interaction with Lindsey is one
such high point.  His reaction to the shooting of a deer is another.  In
general, however, by staying within carefully predetermined bounds and
refusing to attempt anything controversial or genuinely shocking, POWDER
remains restricted to mediocrity.  There's no denying the emotional
appeal of the movie, but the opportunity for more was passed over.
POWDER wants to make its audience cry without causing them too much
discomfort.

- James Berardinelli ([email-masked])