Drama: A man suddenly gets special mental powers and becomes the "freak show" of his small town.
PLOT:
George Malley (JOHN TRAVOLTA), is an auto mechanic in a small town where he's not known as the brightest guy around. He likes Lace Tennamin (KYRA SEDGWICK), a single mother who makes uncomfortable chairs that nobody wants to buy. And he hangs out with his friend Nate Pope (FOREST WHITAKER), a radio buff, and "Doc" (ROBERT DUVALL) the town family practitioner. On the night of his birthday party, George sees a strange light in the sky that knocks him to the ground. After that, he's suddenly Einstein and Edison rolled into one. He becomes a voracious reader (he learns Portuguese in twenty minutes) and an inventor (creating new solar cells, and fertilizer that grows gargantuan plants). He also makes accurate earthquake predictions, and plays a game of deciphering military codes that he hears on Nate's communications system. That draws the attention of the FBI, who then want to conduct experiments on him. In the meantime he struggles to get Lace to like him and when he finally does, the story takes a sudden and sad twist and everyone must struggle with what has really caused George's brain to go into overdrive.
WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
If they're drawn to Travolta films, they will. Also, despite the paranormal behavior, this is really a love story and thus teens might be drawn to it.
WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG
For language and mild sensuality.
CAST AS ROLE MODELS:
The four main characters (JOHN TRAVOLTA,
KYRA SEDGWICK,
FOREST WHITAKER and
ROBERT DUVALL) are all good role models (unless you're concerned with drinking, which Travolta does with some frequency or the issue of him and Sedgwick sleeping together). Otherwise they're all decent people who believe in the human spirit and helping one another.
At George's birthday party, beer is consumed by George and others.
George carries his beer out onto the street and he appears somewhat drunk.
George leaves the bar to drive home (even though he's somewhat drunk and someone asks him if he's okay to drive) although we don't actually see him drunk driving.
Major and minor characters often are seen in the bar where they are drinking beer.
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