Creator

source: Creator

What's good about this picture? Some beautiful Santa Barbara backgrounds--where the cliffs meet the sea--and a couple of the supporting performances. A young Virginia Madsen is radiant as the student love interest to Vincent Spano. David Ogden Steiers is natural-- for once--and entirely credible as a neurologist and perennial adversary to the O'Toole character. Everything else is bad. Peter O'Toole looks like Death--cadaverously thin, pale as a corpse, full of jerky movements. He's fifty years old, for Pete's sake, and we're supposed to buy a romance between him and the nineteen year old free spirit ***** egg donor played by Mariel Hemingway? And where Hugh Laurie ("House" on the Fox TV series) is eccentric, but undeniably macho in sneakers and tee shirt, O'Toole sports a Lord Fauntleroy wardrobe and is decidedly light in his loafers. Vincent Spano in the juvenile role tries hard but needs acting lessons. Tall, but no Ryan O'Neill with that prominent nose and eyes set too close together. And whose gay idea was it to put the short shorts on **him** for the lyrical, young-lovers-frolicking-on-the-beach scene? The script is another problem; not the story which at least is out of the ordinary but the dialog. There is just too much of it. O'Toole's character, in an Etonian accent, talks and talks and talks some more, about everything, ultimately about nothing. As a doctor he has even less credibility than as a love object. Regular viewers of the immensely popular series "House, M.D." will recognize the debt it owes to this movie.

This is a wonderful movie that focuses on character development. The characters are quirky and entertaining. The science in this movie is relatively weak but this movie isn't about science. This is about love, loss, and coming to terms with the curves life throws you. Peter O'tool is Brilliant... I repeat Brilliant in this movie Muriel Hemmingway (Melly) is wonderfully portrayed and the rest of the actors/actresses played at the top of their game on this movie. Grab your girlfriend/boyfriend turn down the lights pop some popcorn and enjoy the show. Warning: There is some foul language and nudity in this movie so I don't recommend watching it with your 10 year old.

Although you laugh when you read summaries of 'Creator' with the storyline of a mad scientist who clones his dead wife (as I did), it is anything but comic in the film. Simply the words "It's Lucy" are enough to make you cry. No, the comedy lies in little touches scattered throughout: The notices which are pinned up everywhere, Wolper's one-upmanship, the disposal of chalk after the lecture, Wolper - "No, I need a fresh, young kid", Paul - "Preferably someone who's never heard of you. That sort of thing. The way O'Toole eats sandwiches. It will fill you with the joy of life but in another way is almost depressing to watch: The characters are so idealistic, so well meaning, you cannot help but take a look at the world around you and think everyone is sleep-walking. It isn't a perfect film though, it has its faults. Meli has had quite enough criticism from everyone else and I am unwilling to comment further...maybe it would have been more realistic if O'Toole had kissed her, but I don't blame him not to. Boris - what an actor! Sid - what a slime! Barbara - What a radiant, beautiful girl! Harry Wolper (Peter O'Toole)- It is worth watching just to see how charming and magnetic it is possible for a human being to be. He radiates tenderness comparable to nothing on earth, oozing sophistication. Occasionally he could pass off as a 30 year old, occasionally a 70 year old, occasionally his own self. He's addictive, charismatic, beautiful. For weeks later you are guaranteed to march around like God. You will preach anything you damn well wish! You will cheerfully announce 'Good Morning' to everyone, you will keep your head up and have the confidence you'd never thought possible...you will look in the mirror and search vainly for that very kindness and sympathy in your own eyes. I did. Oh wouldn't the world be a better place if everyone watched this wonderful film? I'd like to hug Peter and say 'Thank you, thank you, thank you!'

This movie was disappointing. After 15 years, when it was brought back to mind from reviewing some info about Mariel Hemingway, all the regrets I felt about the movie came rolling back. While I remember Peter O'Toole, I was entirely oblivious to the fact that the female "lead" (okay, - she was little more than an object for discussion in the storyline) was Ms. Hemingway. I saw this movie back in the days when I wrote movie reviews, and warned people off it, as the stories just didn't work, and fifteen years of my subconscious trying to sort things out still hasn't made sense of the flow of the ideas. Part of this may have to do with the fact that it looked like, after the original movie (whatever it was about) was filmed, an editor came in and tried to piece together something out of it. I don't know if this had been a project of a previous studio boss, and so was sabotaged to discredit him or her by the successor, or this was a disaster from the original screenplay that attempts to salvage were unsuccessful. The theatrical version just didn't work.

A bizarre and awful... something or other. I guess the best way to describe it is "80s movie." It kind of starts off as a romantic comedy with some science fiction pieces, but it drifts into a weird melodrama as it nears the end. Peter O'Toole stars and really isn't that bad, but he can't possibly elevate this terrible script. He plays a professor who does odd, possibly illegal experiments. He wants to clone his long dead wife, for one. He hires Vincent Spano as his research assistant, but Spano doesn't do much besides fall for fellow student Virginia Madsen (who was quite cute at 24). O'Toole meets up with self-described nymphomaniac Mariel Hemmingway, who agrees to donate an egg so O'Toole can regrow his wife in a test tube. Hemmingway sets her sights on becoming O'Toole's wife (I guess Woody Allen was too young for her?). The comedy is lame. The drama elicits more laughs. Near the end, Madsen randomly falls into a coma and Spano overacts by her side. Hemmingway is really annoying in her 1980s proto-manic pixie dreamgirl role. David Ogden Stiers makes for an uninteresting villain. Just a huge mess.

Creator is one of only a handful of films that I would call original. The characters are complex and three-dimensional, genuine and intriguing (some of the best performances I've ever seen, especially Peter O'Toole). The story, too, is genuine, using everyday people and circumstances to approach powerful themes. What I appreciate most, however, is that the film is deep without being pretentious, and philosophical without losing its entertainment value. Creator is often underrated, probably because it strays from the structure that man moviegoers have come to rely on in a feature film, but it deserves a lot of credit, and is one of the most creative, insightful, and overall extraordinary films I've ever seen.

I must admit I am quite surprised by the amount of praise this film has received. Under my critical eye, it has almost no merits. Peter O'Toole does manage to raise the bar slightly with his characteristic charm, but even his performance is very much below par compared with his usual fare. For all the viewers lauding this as a sensitive wonderful film, it seems to me to have all the depth, emotion and sensitivity of a porno film. Around the 50 minute mark it even seems to turn into a porno film as well. This part of the film is particularly badly handled, and it comes across as lecherous and rather unsettling. The whole thing feels very badly thought out, this particular scene being perhaps only the pinnacle in a mountain of bad taste and styleless rambling. The script is for the most part nonsense, and the basic conceit of the film (that of the doctor's cloning experiments) lies dormant for the large proportion of the film. This just makes me ask "why?"... what is the point of the film when for the most part it is just a series of rather ugly and unrealistic love affairs with apparently no idea about a plot. I really don't see why Peter o'toole agreed to do this film, even if his career was floundering.

To be very honest I've never heard of this movie before. Then upon my visit to England I saw it standing there on a shelf at a post office. The price was ridiculously low and Peter O'Toole staring in it, I thought it would be worth the little loose change they charged for it (incidentally the postage stamp I bought to write the folks back home were more expensive then the movie). And almost a year later I've finally watched it! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. At first I figured it would be a slightly wacky comedy, about a student looking for love and his professor helping him to get close to the girl he wants. I was way off! I must say this movie is THE GREATEST love story I've seen. Forget Zhivago, it's way too pompous, forget Gone with the Wind, it's to sickening sweet, forget Don Juan de Marco, it's too shallow... I admit, this movie had me crying for three times! It's really so touching. And trust me, if a 30 year old guy (happily married and hanging around bars on weekends) admits he's been crying - the movie has got to be emotional. So what's it about? Imagine a cross over of Good Will Hunting, Dead Poet's Society, Finding Forester, Dragonfly, Groundhog Day and Monkey Business. Hard to do right? But that's about it. Harry (O'Toole) is an old professor, lost in the memory of his long departed wife. Yet he is a brilliant researcher, the guy that gets the research money donated (needles to say, O'Toole is about as brilliant as it gets). Sid (Stiers) is the sort of an antagonist of the story. He's the cynical, down to earth, materialistic, self-righteous, yet brilliant scholar (basically a role he got famous for in the series M*A*S*H, while he played Dr. Winchester). And then there's Boris (Spano), the young student, who ends up as an assistant to Harry, which naturally changes his life (not as funny as in Oscar while staring next to Stalone, but then again, this is not such a frantic movie). The main story naturally revolves around them, although there are two significant women as well Meli (Hemingway) and Barbara (Madsen). Unfortunately their characters are flatter then O'Toole's or Spano's. They're just there to support the story and to give them opportunity to grow. Still both roles are played superbly, especially Hemingway contributes a lot to an all out comedic effect with her character. Apart from the story, which you will have to simply experience for yourself (I'm not giving any spoilers away), I was also fascinated by other aspects of this movie. Every character that had lines really contributed. Not a single person interrupted the big picture and the relationship between all the people (no matter how insignificant their roles seemed) really helped to establish the personalities of the main characters. And the music score was also just brilliant. Really, there isn't a single thing I could fault with this movie. Not because I liked it so much, but because it really was very well made. I mean, you'd think that after a dozen or so times of watching it within a month some flaws would pop up, but no. Everything that's there, just somehow fits the BIG PICTURE! So unless you're really prejudges about movies that stir up your emotions you'll just love this movie and I bet you are going to cry while watching it too.

Actually three love stories in one. There's Harry Wolper and his long departed wife, putting the lie to "till death do us part." Then there's the developing relationship between Meli and Wolper. And finally the impulsive young love of Boris and Barbara. All interwoven like so much spaghetti. There's so much love in the air that this would be a great date movie so long as both parties are comfortable with the occasional detours into science and philosophy. The dialogue is usually sharply written and often witty, almost intellectual. The editing, though, was a bit choppy. In today's world, where human cloning is coming ever closer to reality and paranoia about it is common, Jeremy Leven's screenplay should be a good reminder that genes don't make us who we are. As Boris said, even a cloning breakthrough wouldn't be able to bring back the woman he loved, for he could never recreate the experiences that originally shaped her mind and soul. Peter O'Toole again plays his patented charming eccentric. It's a role virtually tailor-made for him, and he carries it well. Whether he's spouting technical or medical jargon, wistfully remembering his lost wife, or rhapsodizing on the nature of God and the Big Picture, O'Toole truly loses himself in this character and comes through as totally convincing. Vincent Spano and Virginia Madsen showed great chemistry as the young college couple. Mariel Hemingway was the weak link. Her character was supposed to be street-smart and self-assured but unfortunately often came across as simply shrill. The melancholy score meshes well with the movie, successfully evoking the loneliness surrounding the characters. Surprising, as it was composed by Sylvester Levay, best known for his pounding, synthesizer-rich theme for TV's "Airwolf." It's worth renting this movie on tape or DVD, because the version edited for television cuts several scenes that are very important to the plot. Without those scenes, some lines just don't make sense. Regrettably, there is no widescreen version even on DVD, although the standard 1.33:1 Academy Frame does help keep the story intimate. Occasionally, though, some characters will have their faces cut off the side of the screen. But even the DVD is a very imperfect version. The sound level wavers wildly, the only DVD I've ever had that does this. Sometimes it's barely audible while seconds later it's back at full volume. And the beginning of the movie is truncated, with the opening titles cutting in a few notes into the score. The print is also grainy, painfully so in a few of the darker scenes. All in all, a very careless transfer. Note for Star Trek fans: this film contains a veritable cavalcade of Trek guest stars. At least four of the cast have appeared on various incarnations of Trek, including Madsen and Stiers on The Next Generation and Ian Wolfe and Jeff Corey on the original show.