A Sober Start To Summer Fun

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

Hey, guys, how's this for a twist? Let's take the end of the world seriously. Geez, how square can you get? No postmodernist, pre-apocalyptic ironies; a not-entirely-improbable cataclysmic threat--a giant comet hurtling earthward with no funny aliens anywhere in sight; special effects that serve the story plausibly; and a certain largely understated courage, as representative examples of humankind attempt to resist or try to accept the awful fate awaiting them. There's something curiously refreshing in the soberly inspirational way Deep Impact embraces the conventions of the old-fashioned disaster movie. You find yourself hoping that when Armageddon arrives, somebody as sensible, humane and good-fatherish as Morgan Freeman is in the White House; that the demographically useful teenager who discovers the threatening comet is a smart, plucky puppy like Elijah Wood; that somebody as down-home and dutiful as Robert Duvall is commanding the space mission charged with diverting the asteroid from its deadly path. We could probably do with fewer of ambitious TV reporter Tea Leoni's problems with her wayward dad, but on the whole there are worse people with whom to spend our (presumably final) days. Director Mimi Leder handles the scene of mass panic very well, and the script does not allow the world to escape disaster completely unscathed. That's believable, and so are the nicely understated moments of self-sacrifice that bring the movie to its emotionally redemptive climax.

--By Richard Schickel