Deep Impact

The disaster movies are upon us. As trailers for Deep Impact they showed Michael Salomon's watery "Hard Rain" as well as "Armageddon", which, like Deep Impact, is about a giant meteor on a threatening course towards Earth.

Mimi Leder is directing again for the Spielberg production company Dreamworks. Deep Impact begins with a botched set-up in which the scientist who discovers the meteor's fateful trajectory is killed in a road accident just as he is about to make his discovery public. The strange thing is that his death serves no purpose. The secret project meant to solve the problem is apparently not delayed. A set-up without a pay-off. The rest of the film is more successful.

The film has a large gallery of characters. Firstly, it follows the group of astronauts who are to try to neutralise the meteor with nuclear bombs. Secondly, it follows the TV reporter Jenny Lerner, who is the first to sniff out the news. Finally, it follows the boy Leo Biederman, who (also) discovered the comet. The special effects play a big part, but the film focuses not least on its characters' reactions to the meteor's approach. Could that be because Leder is a woman?

Deep Impact avoids the worst sentimentality, apart from the president's address to the nation at the end, where I could not help being carried away.