In
Creator, Peter O'Toole plays Dr. Harry Wolper, a university biology
professor, physician and Nobel laureate obsessed with the idea of cloning his dead
wife Lucy (Karen Kopins), who died 25
years earlier.
To
further this obsession, Dr. Wolper, or Harry as he prefers to be called, steals
equipment, funds and laboratory assistants from his university biology department
to equip a secret laboratory in his garage where he hopes to clone Lucy,
despite the suspicions of Dr. Sid Kullenbeck (David Ogden Stiers). In the film’s first act, Harry steals
Kullenbeck’s new lab assistant, biology undergrad Boris Lafkin (Vincent Spano), by promising him the
name of Boris’ newest infatuation, Barbara Spencer (Virginia Madsen) whom Boris had seen wearing a white lab coat and
pushing a lab cart down the hall. Then Harry takes Boris home to show off his
secret laboratory. Later, when Harry needs a healthy ovum to clone Lucy, he finds
Meli (Mariel Hemingway) a teenage nymphomaniac
whom he convinces to moves in with him and give him her ovum, and who promptly
falls in love with him.
Boris
really wants nothing to do with Harry, who chomps on unlit cigars and claims to
be focusing on the big picture. He
only wants to get his biology degree and win Barbara’s love. So, in the film’s
second act, Harry pursues his goal of cloning Lucy, Boris pursues Barbara, Meli
pursues Harry, and the ever-vigilant Kullenbeck pursues evidence that Harry is stealing
from the university.
The
romance between Boris and Barbara is really the honest, emotional core of the
film. Boris convinces Barbara and her dog and cat to move into his one-bedroom
apartment, with Barbara taking the bed and Boris sleeping on the living room sofa.
Then Harry invites them to spend a weekend with him at his ocean beach cottage
where he is able to enjoy the progress of their romance and reminisce about his
own romance with Lucy decades earlier. It is during this weekend that Boris and
Barbara consummate their relationship, Boris asks Barbara to marry him and she
accepts.
Then
tragedy strikes. Barbara goes into a coma and is pronounced brain-dead.
Kullenbeck heads the committee that recommends to Barbara’s parents that they
allow the university hospital to unplug her life-support systems. Boris and
Harry are sure she is not brain-dead, however, and when Harry wins a 48-hour
reprieve he encourages Boris to stay with Barbara and talk her out of her coma
and back to consciousness. Will Boris reawaken Barbara? Will Harry succeed in
cloning Lucy or will he fall in love with Meli?
The
film was written by Jeremy Leven,
based on his own novel. This was Leven’s first screenwriting credit and he has
gone on to do some excellent screenwriting based on other material, notably Don Juan DeMarco (1994), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), The Notebook (2004) and Real Steel (2011). I imagine if Leven had a chance to do Creator over, he would make some major
changes. The screenplay tries to do far too many things. It gives us a
brilliant scientist’s obsession with his long-dead wife, two love affairs, a
professional rivalry, an adjunct campus where retired scientists do research
without funding, and a deathbed soap opera. There are so many plot lines the
screenplay cannot do justice to any of them. The real problem, however, is the
foundation. The story’s fundamental premise is that a brilliant, if eccentric,
Nobel prize-winning biologist, a man possessed of a supremely rational, logical
mind, nurtures a 25-year emotional obsession to clone his dead wife. As long as
you accept this premise, the story makes sense, but once you begin to question
it, the whole thing falls apart.
The
film was directed by Ivan Passer with
his typical attention to the personal quirks that allow his characters to avoid
becoming trapped in the plot. The casting is decent with the exception of
O’Toole. At 52 years of age, he is too old to play the romantic interest of 23-year-old
Mariel Hemingway, especially since he has the gaunt appearance of someone well into
his seventies, which makes him look and feel like Mariel’s grandfather. To his
credit, O’Toole projects a great deal of warmth and charm in his scenes,
displaying a grandfatherly gentleness that seems born of world-weariness and a
desire to forgive and forget the past.
Vincent
Spano and Virginia Madsen are two of the most interesting newcomers to
Hollywood in the mid-1980s and the film gives them one of those simple, dewy-eyed,
glowing romances that we always enjoy watching. Both of them have gone on to
excellent film careers, especially Madsen who has 129 acting credits and an
Oscar nomination for her performance in Sideways
(2004) as of 2022.
The
soundtrack by Sylvester Levay is
lovely, however the production values (sets, costumes) are mediocre. The film has
not aged well and feels dated, as any 1980s-era film focusing on genetic
cloning technology would.
Creator was filmed in January, 1984, in and around Santa Cruz, CA, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine and Crystal Cove, CA. Hospital scenes were filmed in the Alexian Brothers Hospital, San Jose, CA.
My
suggestion is to forgive the rest of the film’s failures and focus on Spano and
Madsen. Then you can enjoy Creator as
a light romantic comedy-drama, at least until the deathbed scene.
Labels:
comedy, drama, romance, sci-fi
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