As a kid, I can't tell you how many times I've seen the film being promoted, referenced, and parodied. I was never really interested in seeing the movie; in fact, I actually had it on VHS. However, now that I've reached adulthood, I'm now wondering if it is as good as people say it is, or if it's just overrated? Well, join me as I review "Free Willy", after seeing it for the first time.
A young boy named Jesse (Jason James Ritcher) is a trouble making kid who was abandoned by his Mother a few years back, and has to live with Foster Parents that love him, but sadly he doesn't and is hoping that his Mother will return someday. Due to his vandalizing crimes, he has to perform community service in a theme park by cleaning up the graffiti on the Whale’s Tank. While cleaning the tank, Jesse befriends a Whale named Willy.
Oh, I so wish it was that Whale!
As you may have guessed, Jesse is reluctant towards
Willy, but slowly the two become very close friends. However, Willy misses his
family, and with the greedy Park owner planning to kill Willy to make money off
the insurance policy, since Willy doesn't become a hit at the park due to the
terrible circumstances he lives in, it is up to Jesse along with his friends
at the park to "free Willy". So yeah, the plot is as predictable and
cliche as it gets. It's so predictable, that we see Willy escaping on the
previews and the posters for this movie. But as cliche and predictable
as it is, is it at least executed so well and gets you so emotionally invested
that you're willing to forgive all of it?
Well, let's start with our two leads. I'm going to admit,
going into this film, since this concept has been done before (just not with a
Whale) I thought I was going to be bored, and just feel nothing but see a corny
and overly whimsical relationship with the kid and the Whale. The first
couple scenes, I didn't buy into it. That scene when Willy saves Jesse didn't
move or touch me at all. And hearing Willy's wailing cry throughout the
movie, irritated the hell out of me! But as I let the film play on, I
did feel the chemistry between the boy and the Whale. It's nothing powerful or
emotional, in fact, even at times after when I started to feel their
relationship, I was turned off at points at how forced the drama is, and how
corny some of it looks. But judging it as a whole it was cute, just nothing powerful
enough to make me cry or get me emotionally invested. I also give our lead a
lot of credit for not only giving a good performance, but for having a lot
of courage to work with an actual Whale. I don't know for sure if the kid was scared
or not when he was interacting with a live Whale, but being able to walk up close
to a killer Whale without showing any signs of fear as he's being filmed
(Especially when putting his hand inside the Whale’s mouth) and still give a good
performance takes a lot of guts. Even if the kid wasn't afraid of the Whale
at all while he's being filmed, since the Whale's been properly trained, I give the
people who worked with the Whale lots of credit for making the Whale being able
to perform a few stunts, and the director for making his interaction with the
kid seem believable, if not emotionally powerful.
While Jesse and the Whale, give a good performance, the rest of the supporting actors are very bland and forgettable. I honestly can't find a single performer in this movie that do just as good of a job as our two leads, nor can I find anything interesting about their character. Even their dramatic moments (Along with our two stars) feel really phoned-in, instead of feeling depressing. The nworker who knows a lot about Whales played by August Schellenberg bores me; the women who trains the sea animals played by Lori Petty is so forgettable, that I hardly remember her performance and character after viewing the movie; the kids social worker played by Mykelti Williamson is a cardboard cut out of a person in high authority that tries to help the lead, with nothing interesting or new about the character or performance; and the evil greedy business men who run the park, are cliche, boring, and forgettable. You also have Jesse's Foster parents that try to reach out to him, which you know our lead will eventually reach out to them. While they too are just as fascinating as the supporting cast, my main attention out of these two characters went to Michael Madsen as the Foster Father. Now, I know Michael Madsen is a great guy and a loving Father in real life; but here, after constantly seeing him as a tough bad guy throughout his film career, it's really hard for me to separate his tough and intimidating approach, as a Foster Father who's trying to connect to a kid. Whenever the kid does something bad, or says something mean to him, I expect him to either curse the kid out by dropping a bunch of F-Bombs, or simply beating or slapping the crap out of him. That scene when Jesse breaks his bedroom window, or when he steals his truck, I'm expecting him to do something extremely brutal to him, which is odd since when he was filming the famous torture scene in "Reservoir Dogs", not only was he reluctant from doing it because of how violent it was, but it was also the fact that the person he was torturing had a kid, which he at the time just became a Father. Even Madsen himself says "The oddest thing is when children recognize me from "Free Willy" and their parents recognize me from "Reservoir Dogs". The kids are, like, "There's Glen!" and the parents are, like, "Don't go near that guy!"". Again, he's a nice guy, but I'm sorry, no matter how hard I try when I see him as this character, I can't let go of seeing him as his old tough guy self. In the words of Madsen himself, he is indeed "a leading man trapped inside a bad guy's body". But I respect him for trying!
The film itself, aside from a few cute scenes between Willy and Jesse, it does have a few things going for it. The cinematography is good, and does at times look artsy. The music, while not too memorable, is still nice. I think the best scenes that where the cinematography and the music blend perfectly together are the scenes with Willy and his Family swimming together, as we hear the theme song in the opening; and hear "Will You Be There" by Michael Jackson during the end credits. Those scenes in my opinion are the best scenes in the movie. As for the climax when our heroes try to "free Willy", it wasn't as thrilling or exciting as I hoped it would be. The only huge obstacles they come across is a tree, nothing more. There's no chase or anything to hold you on the edge of your seat. There's a moment when they go inside a Car Wash to hose Willy down, but that's it. When Willy is finally in the water, we of course, go to the film's iconic scene that's been referenced and parodied countless times, and despite the fact that Willy could have jumped over the nets, instead of 7 feet of rocks; it's still a cool scene. Seeing Willy leap out of the water; to seeing a cool slow-mo shot of the kid underneath Willy, is both awesome and very uplifting. Buuuut with that said, when we see the Whale diving into the water, the CGI for the Whale is so phony and cartoony looking, that this epic and iconic scene, leads to easily the worst effect in the whole entire movie.
So after finally seeing "Free Willy" for the first time, is this something that I regret not seeing during childhood? My answer to that is no. The plot is cliched and predictable; the drama in the film is for the most part as I said, very corny and forced; and the characters are boring and uninteresting. However, I don't think the film is bad, because the relationship between the kid and the Whale for the majority of the film is cute; the non-CGI Whale is very well trained; and the music and cinematography are really nice and atmospheric at times. If you want to know the truth, what really interest me the most in the film, wasn't the kid's relationship with the Whale, it was actually the first time we met the kid as he's running away from the cops; conning people for money; stealing food; causing mischief; carrying around his trusty Harmonica; and hanging with his buds by a skate park. I seriously wished the film was more about this kid running away from his Foster Family, to find his Mother, which he eventually learns the sad truth, hates the way he's living, and goes back home to his new family. Yeah, that plot is quite cliched too, but the way the film executed the scenes with the kid running away in the opening, seemed more fun and engaging, than a kid befriending a Whale. Again, its not a bad movie, I just don't find it to be as good as people build it up to be, and if you love it that's fine. Personally if I want to see a film about a Whale named Willy, that's fun, emotional, and nostalgic, I'll watch the short Disney cartoon "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At The Met".
RATING 3/5
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