"The Man Who Fell to Earth"

Last night's late night viewing was of "The Man Who Fell to Earth." For probably obvious reasons. I hadn't seen the movie in almost ten years, so it was as much of a revisiting as a refreshing.

As I'm sure most of you know, the film stars David Bowie as an alien, locally-named Thomas Jerome Newton, who "falls to earth" in an attempt to save his species (and family) back on his home planet by developing patented devices on Earth, making money, and investing that back into devices to fix the home planet. Or something like that. In the meantime, he meets and marries Mary-Lou (played by Candy Clark), and much of the movie has to do with their life together....as he misses his family back home. Rip Torn, Buck Henry, and Bernie Casey also have meaty parts.

While the film is quite an original watching experience, my personal feeling is that it's a very good but not great movie. There's a certain disconnect I feel throughout viewing that is most likely intentional, but I think it has the final effect of making you not become too involved in the proceedings. Many of the plot points can get easily lost due to this disconnect. Plus, and I hate to say it, but Candy Clark's performance is....uh.....good, but an acquired taste. A taste from the '70s, definitely. You just don't see female performances like that anymore and probably not since the mid-eighties or so. The sort-of ditzy, squeaky-voiced dullard that was typified by Georgia Engel on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. (Remember her? Georgette, Ted Baxter's wife?) I'm pretty sure if an actress put on that sort of performance in anything now, she'd be vilified by all women.

As the first of the "Bowie watches," I still enjoy the movie. It has a strange allure, but it's not something I'd watch too often. Onward, folks....