Barry Levinson’s “Sphere” (1998) is one of those big-budget box office disasters that elicits groans whenever I bring it up, but I’ve always been a fan of it.
That’s not the same thing as claiming it’s a misunderstood classic, which it isn’t.
What happened here is simple: Levinson, working with a colossal budget, a grade-A cast, a powerful writer/producer and on a commercial project that seemingly couldn’t miss, found his efforts undermined by a B-movie screenplay that would be hard to sell with a straight face in the 1950s.
The result is less a prestige project like “Contact” (1997) and more in line with the blissfully nutty “Stargate” (1994). It’s not great sci-fi, but “Sphere” is great fun.
Dustin Hoffman stars as Norman, a psychologist, who joins Harry (Samuel L. Jackson), a mathematician and Beth (Sharon Stone), a marine biologist, on an undersea voyage to investigate a sunken vessel. At least, that’s what they’re initially told until the commander of the top-secret operation (Peter Coyote) informs them that they’ve actually been assembled to get a look at an alien spacecraft underwater.
Based on Michael Crichton’s 1987 novel, the setup is very “Jurassic Park” (1993) goes underwater and gradually becomes a watered-down take on Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” (1972). The screenplay is full of snarky one-liners that counter the expected audience cynicism to the outrageous turns of the plot.
The dialog is sometimes funny on purpose, sometimes not at all. With exterior spectacle in short supply, it does best with tense confrontations and egg-headed discussions.
Levinson clearly intended this as a more intellectual exercise than the typical strut through “Alien” (1979) corridors, claustrophobia and creature attacks. Speaking of “Alien,” Elliot Goldenthal’s score is similar to his work on “Alien 3” (1992).
Crichton’s dialog is overly explanatory, great for his novels but not for his movies. Many scenes involve actors staring at a screen and talking to an intriguing, if limited, offscreen presence named “Jerry.” Talking to “Jerry” is an awful lot like what chat rooms were back when this movie was in theaters.
It’s a joy to watch three actors who are playing roles in contrast to their usual screen personas, as Hoffman, leading his second big Warner Brothers vehicle as the wise center (just as he did in “Outbreak”), Stone is playing a scientist who clearly isn’t over the last man who dated her and Jackson tosses out his one liners like the pro he always was, even this early in his career.
There’s genuine tension over whether Norman and Harry are gaslighting Beth, which is not something you’d expect from a $70 million sci-fi thriller “from the author of Jurassic Park.” It’s funny how the human interactions here are so much more compelling and developed than the aquatic encounters, which are well-staged but limited.
I recall an interview with Jackson where he might have accidentally (maybe) criticized this movie’s screenplay, where he stated, “I always have my lines memorized, whether it’s Shakespeare or ‘Sphere.’” I like how “Sphere” was on the other end of the Shakespeare comparison!
When “Sphere” tries to go head-to-head with “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), it showcases its weaknesses as well as its lesser status as entertainment. There’s a shock reveal with a pile of paperback novels that, I think, is supposed to be intentionally funny.
Coming to 4K UHD Soon
Directed by Barry Levinson
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson
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“Sphere” is like many of the late ’90s B-movies with A+ budgets but C+ smarts, though it’s on the bottom rung of the ladder that has “Event Horizon” (1997), “Mission to Mars” (2000) and “Solaris” (2002) near the top.
Huey Lewis and Queen Latifah appear in small roles – I love them both in their day jobs, but here, the movie could have used a lot less Lewis and a lot more Latifah.
As in his work for “Sleepers” (1996), where Levinson did his best to make a Scorsese-like neighborhood drama, he does a professional job here but is clearly striving for the kind of excitement and magic that Steven Spielberg could create with the flick of a wrist.
Despite the sometimes-heady dialog, it plays less like a companion piece to “Forbidden Planet” (1956) and more like “Leviathan” (1989) on a massive budget and far less gore and cheap thrills.
A key sequence from the novel involved a giant tentacle attacking the underwater base- the movie really needed it. Without that set piece, the money shots are a couple of aggressive sea snake attacks, an overdone jelly-fish infestation (which gets sillier every time someone brings it up) and a bunch of giant eggs being dumped to the ocean’s surface.
The reshot ending was reportedly a compromise, and it feels that way. I like the simple solution the surviving characters come to, but it’s as though Crichton ended “Jurassic Park” with, “How about we tempt them with dino treats and just coerce them into a giant cage?”
Bottom line is that James Cameron’s “The Abyss” (1989) did all of this better, with some major thrills, three similarly top-tier leads from three actors in their element and spectacle and even underwater chase scenes that are seat-clutching terrific. Still, as lesser Crichton films go, “Sphere” is in the good company with expensive Crichton B-movies like “Congo” and “The 13th Warrior.”
Just remember, to misquote one of my favorite actors, it’s not Shakespeare, it’s “Sphere.”