STARRING: Christopher Walken, Lindsay Crouse,
Frances Sternhagen, Andreas Katsulas, Terri Hanauer, Joel
Carlson, Basil Hoffman
1989, 107 Minutes , Directed by: Philippe Mora
Description:Based on the best-selling novel by Whitley Strieber,
"Communion" depicts the personal and professional crises a writer experiences
after a series of encounters with non-human beings. The film focuses on the
psychological and emotional harm the experience does. We see Strieber
(Christopher Walken) describe his experiences to his medical doctor, and then to
a psychiatrist. Once his own mental health has been established, then (and only
then) does he begin to consider the possibility that the creatures he has seen
are actually real.
—
Amazon.com
Whether you actually enjoy this movie probably depends on whether you take UFOs
and people who are kidnapped by them seriously. If you do, then you'll take
this movie seriously because it is an (allegedly) true account of a previous
unbeliever, who in therapy groups, come to realize that he has not only been
kidnapped by aliens, but that he has been subjected to experiments akin to rape
by them.
Um well, enough hokum to keep
any New Age groupie happy I suppose. If,
like the rest of us, you don't take this sort of thing serious,
then you're likely to feel that this is one of the weakest movies
you've ever seen.
For one, the aliens are completely unbelievable
and makes one wonder whether they are intentionally meant to look
like those often seen in old 1950s sci-fi movies.The light
effects, while very Close
Encounters-like, are
below standard. Not to mention the sets . . .
Christopher
Walken, the guy who sat between Big Foot and Elvis on the UFO, is
mostly the problem. Walken is best at playing bit roles as bad
guys in movies like True Romance and Batman
Returns or
psychos like Annie Hall's sister. But as a writer anally probed by
aliens (don't laugh - the movie expects us to take this
seriously) with whom we are supposed to be sympathetic he is too
emotionally unaffecting.
Give
this one a miss . . . unless you want to believe.
Incidentally, Whitley Strieber
on whose "autobiographical" best-selling book this film is based, has recently
admitted that he may have imagined the whole incident. Thought you might like to
know . . .
