Deep Impact Review
by John Eung Soo Kim (jfilmer AT admin DOT con2 DOT com)May 11th, 1998
Deep Impact
Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks L.L.C. and Amblin Entertainment Dir: Mimi Leder / Starring: Morgan Freeman, Tea Leoni, Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood
Rated PG-13
Unlike most disaster movies, "Deep Impact" focuses on the psychological aspect of impending doom. Dir. Mimi Leder tries to bring us into the minds of the characters and explore the drama for each sub-plot but it just doesn't seem to work. "Deep Impact" is Leder's second feature film. She directed DreamWorks' first feature "The Peacemaker" with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman.
The story and script was very well written. The situation and measures taken seem very feasible. The only problem? The people didn't seem real and sorry to say, the directing wasn't all that good as well. It's very difficult to have a director (whose strength is in drama) to direct a story with nothing but heros for a cast. Everyone sacrificed. Some gave up their lifes, others allowed their child to go off and save the girl he loves, etc, etc.
Academy Award winner Robert Duvall seemed out of place and unconvincing (I never thought I would ever say that), 3 time Academy Award nominee Morgan Freeman was one-dimentional, Tea Leoni was always either scared or angry. And sadly to say, these were just a few of the problems. Leder does try, however. There's a great scene where we're glued to the edge of out seats when we are brought into the helmets of the astronauts. The slow repetition of dissolves as Mrs. Lerner prepares to die is reminiscent of Scorcese's "Age of Innocence". Unfortunately, the attempt to bring us in to the minds of the people in the smaller stories only suceeds in making the film seem smaller. As if the budget wasn't large enough to support the special effects, great cast AND the large amount of extras needed to make it a legitimate disaster film. There just wasn't enough scenes with a mass of people. In fact, there were more people in the theater than in most of the crowd scenes.
Overall, due to poor directing, art direction, and character development, I gave the film *1/2 of *****.
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