Forever Young

You may not be a fan of Gibson’s but he is my favorite actor-especially until the 21st century. He has played in great movies and if we had to pay attention to all celebrity bizarreness or real life personalities, we wouldn’t be able to watch anyone. Keeping that mind, below is the plot and reviews of Forever Young.

Here we go:

1939

Daniel (Mel Gibson) is a pilot in the late 30s, with a scientist for a best friend – Harry- and his childhood sweetheart Helen as his girlfriend. He is blissfully happy and is dying to propose to her. However one day, a tragic accident puts Helen in a coma and Daniel is more than devastated. He doesn’t want to just spend his days waiting for her to wake up, especially when there is a big chance she probably won’t. So he makes a decision. Harry has recently conducted a development where he froze a chicken-with all vital functions- and then brought him successfully back to life. Basically the animal just slept, without aging. Harry has his doubts, since the experiment hasn’t been tried on humans before. But Daniel is extremely miserable. So Harry agrees. The arrangement is that he will be woken if Helen wakes up. As Daniel is frozen, all he thinks about is his life with Helen.

1992

Two kids are playing around in a seemingly abandoned part of a military base. They find a very large “box” and they accidentally turn it on. But of course this is not any box or casket- this is the very place where Daniel was frozen more than 50 years ago. The kids of course freak out and run away but not before a semi-awake Daniel grabs Nat’s jacket.

Disoriented and confused; Nat wakes up. He steals some clothes and walks around when he gets the shock of his life. He has slept more than 5 decades!!! The experiment has long been forgotten, his scientist buddy has been dead for years and the only connection to present time is Nat and his friend. At first Nat hides Daniel from his mom Claire (Jamie Lee Curtis). But one day Daniel gets to save Claire from a violent ex and she gladly accepts this kind and handsome stranger into their lives. Of course it is easy for Claire to develop a crush on Daniel whereas Daniel misses Helen terribly. However this is not Danny’s only problem. He begins to get some serious pain attacks, like electric currents. One forces him to be hospitalized and doctors have a hard time figuring things out. Of course military has caught up and the FBI wants Daniel too. Seeing that Daniel is aging- very fast – Claire decides it is her turn to save his life. After all, there is chance that maybe Helen did wake up from her coma…Below is the first part of the movie. The whole film is on youtube.

Forever Young is a very special film. It is a smart and sincere blend of several genres: it is a romance and a drama. We have a man who has loved his childhood sweetheart all his life and has lost her just before he could propose. He chooses to go to “sleep”, rather than anticipating her death. When he is accidentally found years later, it is by a kid who grew up without a father and a decent male role model in his life. Daniel gets to be the decent man that Claire and Nat never had around. And as much as Daniel cares a lot about them, he still feels the void caused by Helen’s absence.

Putting Mel’s character to sleep of course involves sci-fi elements. And think about how funny things get when Mel tries to adapt to so many years later. TVs, computers,everything…

The make-up department has done one hell of good job by making Mel Gibson age so fast and so well. The aging stops when Daniel reaches the age he is supposed to be. And I remember thinking: “Wow, Mel Gibson is going to grow old to be one handsome old man”. Well, I turned out to be wrong. Too many kids, too much pressure and drinking made Mel lose much hair and gain too much impact on the face.

But it doesn’t change the fact that Mel Gibson played in some really good entertaining and timeless movies and well, Forever Young is definitely one of them. It is never sappy or cheesy.

It is emotional and funny and thought-provoking. Not to mention an original plot written by J.J. Abrams. No wonder the story rocks. Do you remember who Abrams is? He is the guy who created Lost and Alias. So it doesn’t matter if you love or hate Mel Gibson. This film is good. You will enjoy it especially more if you have a softness for 90s movies. Have fun.