Review of Cocoon

Introduction

Ron Howard made a splash with his directorial debut, quite literally so. Cocoon stayed in familiar territory, dealing with the fantastic and the sea, but this time the story was out of this world. By 1985, following precedents set by ET and Starman, the friendly alien movie was pretty much in vogue, and Cocoon is an admirable addition to the genre, the twist being that the humans encountering the aliens are of pensionable age.

Art Selwyn, Ben Luckett and Joe Finley are three friends who are living out their twilight years in a retirement home by the sea. Joe is coming to terms with a terminal cancer and to escape their rather morbid environment, the friends trespass in a disused house next door to take advantage of the swimming pool. However their illicit sojourns are halted when four new visitors move into the house. These four strangers have hired the boat and it`s owner, Jack Bonner to take them out into the Atlantic, where they retrieve large rocky objects and store them in the pool. The three elderly friends don`t remain dissuaded for long, and begin swimming in the pool again during the absence of the strangers. The odd objects have a weird effect on the swimmers though and they rapidly begin to feel rejuvenated. Initially it`s as if the pool is having the same effect as Viagra, but when Joe`s cancer goes into remission it appears that they have found a fountain of youth. Meanwhile, Jack`s curiosity leads him into trouble when his peeping tom act leads him to witness one of his mysterious passengers take more than just her clothes off.

Video

Cocoon has a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. It seems as if the original source material has been transferred without any sort of restoration. The film is initially quite dirty, with several specks of dirt on the print, but these soon vanish to leave a relatively clean picture, as you would expect from a film made 17 years ago. The transfer itself is very well done, with no evidence of compression artefacts or such like. Naturally the effects have dated somewhat, with the aliens looking a little laughable, but the underwater sequences are still impressive and the spaceship an impressive homage to Close Encounters.

Audio

The sound has been remixed to give a DD 4.1 track. The dialogue is always clear and the surround is used liberally, but unremarkably so, mostly for music and ambience. The soundtrack is impressive, composed by veteran James Horner. It is perfectly suited to the magical storyline and conveys the wonder of the situation well as well as the comedy.

Features

A static menu gives you a choice of the ubiquitous trailer, scene selections and subtitles. That`s your lot.

Conclusion

Cocoon`s cast is excellent. It`s great to see the Hollywood greats of yore strut their stuff. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy are Joe and Alma Finley. It`s great to see the effect that the pool has on these two as it first reinvigorates their relationship, and then Joe`s eye starts to wander. Don Ameche is flamboyant as Art Selwyn as he shows his suave side with the woman he courts, but with hindsight the break-dancing scene is ill judged to say the least. Wilford Brimley always impresses. Here he plays Ben Luckett and he is the voice of reason as the effects of the rejuvenation spin out of control. Remember when Steve Guttenberg made movies? Here he is good as the boat`s Captain, Jack Bonner and his reaction to the aliens is genuine. The relationship with Kitty, Tahnee Welch is very good and often humorous. The aliens are understated, here led by Brian Dennehy as Walter, but their unassuming manner adds rather than detracts to the story. Jack Gilford is excellent as Bernie Lefkowitz, the retiree taking care of his invalid wife. He cuts a tragic figure as he refuses to have anything to do with the pool and remains the sole voice of dissent in the group.

For a good while, Ron Howard was renowned for this type of film and it`s easy to see why. He directs with an eye for the human side of the story and takes the audience on a wondrous journey without any hint of cynicism. The story he tells here is heartfelt and heart-warming. But compared to many similar films, Cocoon is a little lacking. The aliens are never fully explored, and are used mainly as a mechanism to rejuvenate the oldies. Some of the antics the retirees get up to are often silly and even gimmicky and the honey-coated schmaltz can get a little cloying after a while. I think that`s the cynic in me talking and these are just minor grumbles and what the story lacks is more than made up for by the performances. This is an innocent story, told simply and is at its heart a modern day fairy-tale. The disc may be lacking in extras, but the transfer is good and it`s well worth a spin.