It helps to realize that this was directed by the Australian Peter Weir, many of whose films have oozed an ill-defined enigmatic quality. I remember the first of his movies I saw, "The Last Wave," in Palo Alto, when it was released. I'd never seen anything quite like it. And then, shortly afterward, "Picnic at Hanging Rock", which left me hanging at a much more tentative angle than the rock. Not all of his movie have been so mysterious, so bounced around, but "Fearless" is. Like "The Last Wave" it has a fuzzy supernatural element.
Jeff Bridges and a few other passengers, Rosie Perez among them, survive a horrible fiery airplane crash in California. Bridges and Perez can't get their lives together afterward. Perez, having lost her baby in the accident, blames herself and is depressed almost beyond speech. Bridges, on the other hand, feels he is now indestructible and is, furthermore, some kind of supernatural agent left on earth to help Perez recover. His near-death experience has restructured his life. He feels he is invincible. He goes to lengths that anyone would describe as extreme in order to prove it.
Bridges is always good. He always brings something extra to the role, although at times he overreaches. Rosie Perez isn't the Puerto Rican spitfire she usually is. She's subdued (for her) and effective in the character of a woman who has to realize that her baby's death was not her responsibility. Some comic moments are added by Tom Hulce as a bespectacled nervous wreck of a lawyer who sincerely wants to be sympathetic and get rich doing it. ("I know, I know, I'm a bad guy because I'm trying to get money. Don't bother saying it!") Isabella Rossellini is the increasingly distraught wife who can't understand why her husband is growing more distant, more ethereal, and appears to be falling in love with the woman he's trying to help.
It isn't one of Weir's most provocative movies but once you get into it the narrative sweeps you up, partly because you can't help wondering where the hell it's all headed. The climax seems mundane after all that portent.
Jeff Bridges and a few other passengers, Rosie Perez among them, survive a horrible fiery airplane crash in California. Bridges and Perez can't get their lives together afterward. Perez, having lost her baby in the accident, blames herself and is depressed almost beyond speech. Bridges, on the other hand, feels he is now indestructible and is, furthermore, some kind of supernatural agent left on earth to help Perez recover. His near-death experience has restructured his life. He feels he is invincible. He goes to lengths that anyone would describe as extreme in order to prove it.
Bridges is always good. He always brings something extra to the role, although at times he overreaches. Rosie Perez isn't the Puerto Rican spitfire she usually is. She's subdued (for her) and effective in the character of a woman who has to realize that her baby's death was not her responsibility. Some comic moments are added by Tom Hulce as a bespectacled nervous wreck of a lawyer who sincerely wants to be sympathetic and get rich doing it. ("I know, I know, I'm a bad guy because I'm trying to get money. Don't bother saying it!") Isabella Rossellini is the increasingly distraught wife who can't understand why her husband is growing more distant, more ethereal, and appears to be falling in love with the woman he's trying to help.
It isn't one of Weir's most provocative movies but once you get into it the narrative sweeps you up, partly because you can't help wondering where the hell it's all headed. The climax seems mundane after all that portent.