In some ways better than the original, but with emotional holes

Rating: 7/10 (7 July 2010)

The Fly (1986)
I just saw the original 1958 "The Fly" and as creaky as it was in some ways, it was a thrilling idea and had some great roles. Two days later I'm zooming ahead three decades, and boy, what a difference a day makes. It's better and it's worse. But rather than compare them, we turn to the 1986 version, directed by semi-auteur big budget director, David Cronenberg.
The story again dominates, but it has taken amazing leaps in concept. If you like the transporter idea, that's only the beginning. The longer the movie runs, the more bizarre and campier it gets. In fact, if you can skip the first half hour (and you could, actually) you'll have more fun. In the second half of the plot, the lead boy genius scientist (now more like 30) played by Jeff Goldblum, disintegrates. This is good for a lot of reasons, one of them is to get beyond Jeff Goldblum the actor, who seems to alway show his awareness of the camera and ruin what might be better acting, and better characters. So when he is no longer quite himself, we are mesmerized by the horrors of the plot. Of course, you have to get past the grotesqueness of it all--it is really gross--but that's part of the ongoing shock.
Geena Davis? Completely convincing and solid as a reporter and eventual second fiddle to Goldblum. And the third actor with any part at all, John Getz, the reporter's editor, is forgivably awful, and meant to be unsavory. The relationship (sexual and otherwise) between these three is unconvincing at best, and the notion that the reporter would even slightly trust this editor is untenable. That much we need to believe in, just as much as we can imagine the other love affair, which is both believable and loaded with implications later.
But the idea, the idea! Simplified and impossible, it's still a perfect movie scenario, and it's a riot, and terrifying. When it defies logic, swallow and give it a chance. Not a quite great movie, but great fun.