Theater in the Round
Sphere Encompasses Wonder and Terror

Two of my favorite actors today are Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson. The chance to see them together on the screen struck me as a "don't miss" opportunity. Stack on top of that a screenplay based on a Michael Crichton novel. It appeared that Sphere had the main ingredients for a great movie. To my disappointment, however, it never rose above "interesting".

Sphere begins with the classic science fiction motif of first contact. The U.S. government has discovered an alien spacecraft under the ocean. Estimates suggest the craft has been stranded underwater for 300 years. Operating off a report written by psychologist Norman Goodman (Hoffman) during the Bush administration, a top secret task force is assembled. In addition to Norman, the team includes a mathematician, Harry (Jackson); a biologist, Beth (Sharon Stone); and an astrophysicist, Ted (Liev Schreiber). Leading the team is a government spook named Barnes (Peter Coyote).

What Barnes doesn't know is that Norman faked his way through the report like a college student doing a term paper. He reluctantly admits to Harry and then Beth that what research he didn't do he borrowed from experts (like science fiction writers Issac Asimov and Rod Serling). The people he named to be included on the team were chosen at random from his circle of acquaintances. As a result, there are loves, hatreds, and rivalries already existing between the different members of the team -- which can only lead to friction once they are 1000 feet below the surface.

When the team gets to the sunken spacecraft, they find a number of anomalies which lead them to correctly surmise that the ship is not of alien origin. As near as they can guess, the ship is from Earth, hurled from the future into the past by an unexplained spacial anomaly. The big surprise is a sphere of unknown origin that they find onboard.

Sphere borrows from classic science fiction stories, part Forbidden Planet and The Abyss. It never lowers itself to a sci-fi/horror meld in which the crew is picked off one by one. This (like many of Crichton's works) is a thinker's story. The real terror comes from a lack of trust, suspicion, and betrayal.

Hoffman comes across perfectly in this story. His nervous mannerisms are perfect in this role. Jackson starts off as friendly, always willing to make a joke, but turns haunting during the course of the story. The remainder of the cast performed well, but no one turned out an award-winning role. The story, for all its wonder and terror, failed to get inside anyone except Norman.

My recommendation for Sphere is hesitant. This was a good movie with a couple of good performances. Will I own it when it comes out on video? Probably not. But I might watch it again. The science fiction elements may turn off the casual movie goer, but fans of the genre should enjoy it.

MY RATING: 4 out of 10.

RATED:
RUN TIME: 132 min.

Theater in the Round Sphere Encompasses Wonder and Terror

Theater in the Round
Sphere Encompasses Wonder and Terror