Phenomenon (1996)

July 5, 1996 (US) • Drama, Romance, Fantasy • 123m

Overview

An ordinary man sees a bright light descend from the sky, and discovers he now has super-intelligence and telekinesis.

Director

John Travolta

Keywords

brain tumor genius terminal illness telekinesis doctor psionic power philosophical awestruck

Where to watch

Free / Included

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Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

Filipe Manuel Neto

⭐ 3/10

December 26, 2023

**A good film, spoiled by a horrible ending.**

When I decided to watch this film, I was quite curious about its story. In fact, the film has its interest and works almost until the end. It is precisely the ending that ruins the efforts made so far. It's not the first time, and it certainly won't be the last, that I've come across a film that would have had everything to work if the screenwriter and director had had the ability to end the story as happily as they started it.

Technically, the film doesn't present anything special. Cinematography, visual and sound effects, sets, costumes, filming locations, soundtrack... it's all reasonably well executed, but it doesn't present any surprises or quality notes worth mentioning. It's just another bland, meek and nothing special film. As for the cast, it is up to us to recognize everyone's collective effort and the good performance of most of the groups. John Travolta, who is an actor that I don't like very much, manages to give us a very friendly and committed performance, creating an appealing character, who easily captures our empathy and who has the necessary charisma to stand out and captivate the audience. Alongside him are two excellent actors, Robert Duvall and Forest Whitaker. Both stand out for their sympathy and manage to give us two secondary characters strong enough to give the film additional interest. Kyra Sedgwick is worse off, as she doesn't seem to have any value to the film other than being a love interest.

The script has excellent premises that, although not really original, manage to have the interest they need to support the film: a completely ordinary man who lives in rural America becomes a genius after suffering an inexplicable incident on the night of his birthday with a light coming from the sky. In addition to an extraordinary ability to think and reason that allows him to solve problems quickly, he begins to read uncontrollably, learn everything and improve things around him, in an absolutely visionary way. Everything indicates that he suffered some type of incident with aliens, and this hypothesis is used for a lot of discussion in the film. When we are approaching the end, the script completely derails and gives us the most anticlimactic ending we could imagine, which not only disrespects everything that has been done but does not explain even half of what happened to that man. Worse than this, just a hard kick to our heads.

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Status

Released

Original Language

Budget

$32,000,000

Revenue

$152,000,000

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