"So I'm big for my age..."      

JACK (PG-13) 

Robin Williams deserves a lot of credit for the successful acting career he's created for himself. Ever the comedian, Robin also seems to have a knack for getting the audience on his side.  Yes, audiences love to laugh at and with Robin, but they also seem equally prepared to buy any character he wishes to play. Whether the gay clubowner in The Birdcage, the introverted doctor in Awakenings, or as Aladdin's genie, Robin always seems to get away with "being Robin Williams" and yet somehow pulling off the character he has chosen to be.

For Jack, Robin plays Jack Powell, a boy who (due to a genetic defect) ages four times faster than normal human beings.  Born after only a two month pregnancy, Jack is raised at home until he is ten years old, when his parents finally allow him to go to public school.  Of course, ten-year-old Jack looks like a forty-year-old, has never had any friends, and is considered an outcast (at least initially) by his classmates.  It is from here that the movie really begins, taking the audience along as a ten-year-old boy trapped in a forty-year-old body learns to make friends, and live, and love, and grow.  

Well, at least that's what the movie tries to do.  Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and co-starring Diane Lane (Mom), Brian Kerwin (Dad), and a strong supporting cast of ten-year-olds, Jack does have moments that are truly funny, tragic, and poignant.  In between those moments, however, are also some dull sequences (the treehouse), some out-of-place scenes (the barroom), and some silly jokes (how many desks can a person break in one movie?).  

This is clearly not as good a film as it could have been--it would've been nice to see a little more focus on Jack's friendship with Louis (Adam Zolotin), and a little less attention on his "friendship" with Dolores (Louis' mother as played by Fran "The Nanny" Drescher).  Jack's relationship with his parents also seemed somewhat forced, like they were just recently thrown together rather than already having lived with each other for ten years.  Quibbles, quibbles, quibbles, right?  

Most of the Robin Williams fans I know wouldn't let a bad film review stop them from seeing a Williams film, and with Jack that's perfectly alright.  This is a relatively entertaining film, and Williams fans will again surely appreciate his antics and his acting.

IMPRESSIONS

Surprise surprise: Bill Cosby has a part in this film.  I was starting to think he'd disappeared for good...

And I still can't figure out: how you make a box move like that while you're in it...that's a cool trick.

So really: how many desks can a person break in one movie?

Responses from cyberspace -- thanks for the input, folks!

David Rogers gives this movie  stars: "I thought it would be fun to watch Robin Williams play a character he acts like all the time. I was dead wrong." (5/6/00)

Katie gives this movie  stars: "I really liked this movie ,I thought that it was amusing and interesting" (1/25/00)

tweety5547@aol.com gives this movie  stars: "It was a great movie. And it had its ups and downs. but it gave me the wrong idea on the aging thing." (12/12/99)

David gives this movie  stars: "Very depressing! Very fun! Very funny! This movie has it all. But the depressing part won. It was a brilliant film with brilliant acting by Robin Williams!" (1/24/98)

"Kim" gives this movie a  rating.  "This was an O.K. movie that lagged a bit at the end.  Overall if you are a Robin Williams fan, see this movie."