Elijah Wood
Performer for Our Time
FOREVER YOUNG
(1992)
Review
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Elijah Wood Performer for Our Time FOREVER YOUNG Review |
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FOREVER YOUNG (1992) |
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Edward C. Patterson, site owner |
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A+
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| Forever Young
is the kind of movie my mother likes—sweet, good old fashioned story, cute
kid, no one gets really injured, depression is rewarded with joy and a happy
ending. In fact my mother likes this movie and so do most viewers. My mom
professes not to like science fiction. But, who cares when you have Mel
Gibson at his handsome peak (something which has now peaked), and blue-eyed
Elijah Wood filling in the saccharin when blue-eyed Mel is taking a rest.
The fact is, Forever Young works on all levels.
Old plot—man is suspended in time and wakes up in the future—zowie! Needs to adjust. Needs to find answers. Finds shelter and danger. A mixture of Always and Blast from the Past, Forever Young makes the old formula work by throwing in some—more old formulas. Take a love affair that almost was, but can never be. Add a desolation that has no bounds. Give it a margin of escape, into a world of cryogenics. Diffuse the sci-fi out of the picture. No one cares about the how and why (except George Wendt, who froze a chicken and brought it back to life and David Marshall Grant and his FBI cronies). Have the hero wake up, scare some nosey kids, get naked, wear women’s clothes, and show up at the doorstep of a not-so-perfect household, but a not-that-dysfunctional one as well. What makes Forever Young endearing (and enduring as a classic) is Daniel’s search for an answer from a man who is dead for many years; and of course, his still undying love for Helen (Isabel Glasser) even with the presence of Claire Cooper (Jamie Lee Curtis) to add sexual tension. Like the Billy Holiday theme song— "The very thought of you," the absence of a true love can still provoke an unquenchable yearning; and Mel Gibson does a bang up job of convincing us that despite 50 years missing, he is still the same old fashioned, 1939 guy in love with a woman who is far removed. Not necessary to the plot, but central to Forever Young’s success is the then eleven year old Elijah Wood, who for one of the very few times in his seventeen year acting career, needs to play a kid. Most of his character portrayals of young folk are children deeply wounded or in the grips of Adult drama. In Forever Young he has the challenge of finding a character arc that really is not in the script. He finds one (bully for him), and has his character, Nat Cooper, rise above its meagerness, adding humor, sweetness, excitement and, well—I hate to say it, but he makes us feel Forever Young. The film is about the old folk finding youth. But, define Youth. Ah! That definition is supplied by none other than Elijah Wood, despite the acting challenge and his own personal flagging against the part during the film’s shooting. Of course, the twist ending is perfect—something akin to To Each His Own or Imitation of Life (not the remake—the Original with Claudette Colbert). Overall, a peaceful, warm film, Forever Young will remain Forever Popular. Maybe because it offends no one, makes for a good Saturday afternoon DVD watch, and is, frankly my dear, a damn good film. A+. |