Film Review: Cocoon (1985)

(source: tmdb.org)

To say that Hollywood is obsessed with youth is an understatement. Consequently, old age is a subject that is something of taboo in American dream factory. This and senior citizens being the least likely part of general demographics to visit cinemas made films dealing with that subject, at least those intended for mainstream distribution, quite rare. One of such rarities and, arguably, one of the most successful in commercial terms, is Cocoon, 1985 science fiction film directed by Ron Howard.

Nominal protagonists are Art Selwyn (played by Don Ameche), Ben Luckett (played by Wilford Brimley) and Joe Finley (played by Hume Cronyn) – three friends who live in Florida nursing home with their respective wives and girlfriend. Their life is relatively good, but under constant shadow of health problems and realisation that the death might come every day. A little comfort is found in nearby abandoned mansion where trio, just like little boys, enjoy swimming in the pool. Things start to change when the mansion gets rented by group of strange people led by Walther (played by Brian Dennehy) who have also rented the boat owned by struggling skipper Jack Bonner (played by Steve Guttenberg) and began collecting strange-looking rocks from the bottom of the sea. After those rocks are deployed in the pool, three old friends continue to use it but they also discover that are not only miraculously cured of their ailment, but they actually feel much younger. Jack, and soon the trio from nursing home, discovers that Walther and his friends are actually aliens from planet Antarea who came to Earth to rescue their old friends, left in special cocoons at the bottom of the sea 10,000 years ago.

Cocoon was well-liked by critics and by the audience. The latter isn’t that surprising, because it is a textbook example of well-made crowd-pleasing film. Ron Howard, former actor who switched to directing, was perfect choice for this film, because sentimental family-friendly yet uplifting stories like this one are his forte. Howard directed this film well, and he especially did good work with older members of the cast, to whom he showed great deal of respect and affection. The senior part of the cast is also the best, and that includes veterans like Cronyn (who in the film appears with real life wife Jessica Tandy playing his on-screen wife) and Don Ameche, who actually won Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in this film. The most interesting actor of the trio is, however, Wilford Brimley, character actor who was actually quite young for his role, barely in his fifties, but with little make-up and great acting skill portrayed the character decades older than himself. James Horner provides another interesting soundtrack that uses 1940s motives, making the film slightly closer to the period the protagonists would feel nostalgia for. Special effects by Industrial Light and Magic are more than decent and hold very well even decades later.

The main flaw of the film is the script by Tom Benedek, which tries too hard to stuff too much content into the film. While it is understandable that crowd-pleasing science fiction film like this should have certain degree of comedy, sentimentality and even some serious drama to raise the emotional stakes, Cocoon adds romance and action without much success. The former is used in rather unecessary subplot involving Jack and female alien played by Tahnee Welch, daughter of 1960s sex symbol Raquel Welch. Although she has the proper looks, she lacks chemistry with Guttenberg, whose character in many ways looks unnecessary. The ending, which involves boat chase and some interesting special effects, is little bit overlong. Cocoon, despite those flaws, could be recommended as a very entertaining film and rare example of 1980s mainstream Hollywood successfully experimenting on less travelled roads.

RATING: 6/10 (++)