By Hollywood standards, FEARLESS is a brave attempt to grapple with some Big Issues--life, death, faith, guilt, stuff like that. At times, it crashes to the ground in a blaze of heavy-handed symbolism, but FEARLESS also achieves some haunting, hallucinatory flights of beauty.
Jeff Bridges plays Max Klein, a San Francisco architect psychologically transformed by an appalling plane crash. In the moments before impact, Max realizes he is not afraid of dying. Until now a nervous, harried figure, he discovers a heroic calm that helps him save several passengers, but also
makes his entire previous existence seem foreign and irrelevant. The only person the new Max can relate to is fellow survivor Carla (Rosie Perez), a working-class Hispanic mother stricken with guilt over her failure to save her son during the crash.
If Max's beautiful, adoring wife (Isabella Rossellini) has a hard time understanding her husband's almost mystical attraction to Carla, so does the audience. Perez's performance undoes the film's delicate chemistry, with her shrill delivery sabotaging many key scenes. Bridges, by contrast, is a
marvel--even as he strides through the physical world, he somehow makes us believe he has transcended it. Rossellini is superb as his wife, Tom Hulce is funny as a venal attorney, and John Turturro makes a quietly effective therapist. It's a shame that not all of the crew can fly at the same
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