Saving Whale Is Easier Than Saving Schmaltzy Movie

Movie review

X 1/2 "Free Willy," with Jason James Richter, Lori Petty, Jayne Atkinson, August Schellenberg and Michael Madsen. Directed by Simon Wincer, from a screenplay by Keith A. Walker and Corey Blechman. Grand, Uptown, Lewis & Clark, Factoria, Gateway Center 8, Everett 9. "PG" - Parental guidance suggested because of very mild profanity. -------------------------------------------------------------------

It's worth noting that the original director of "Free Willy," Robin Armstrong, bitterly parted from the production when the producers handed him a long list of ideas to be incorporated into the film.

Apparently Armstrong, who brought a delicate touch to his 1991 baseball movie "Pastime," has a healthy aversion to compromise. We'll never know what he might have done with "Free Willy," but it's clear that his respected replacement, Simon Wincer, could not save this potentially charming family film from being hopelessly schmaltzy and cynically manipulative.

This boy-and-his-whale tale is being ridiculously compared to "E.T.", but in their attempt to re-create the "E.T." magic, producers Richard Donner and Lauren Shuler-Donner, have repeated the misguided approach they took to Donner's 1992 flop "Radio Flyer." In doing so, they have soured the seven-year dream of screenwriter Keith A. Walker, who conceived the story in 1984 while acting in Richard Donner's miserable "The Goonies."

Then again, Walker's derivative scenario may have been a lost cause, being equally prone to mimic "E.T." at the expense of even one fresh idea. "Free Willy" is nothing if not exasperatingly schematic.

It's like fitting a two-piece puzzle together: The boy is Jesse (irritating newcomer Jason James Richter), a homeless, parentless 12-year-old committing petty crimes in a quaint Northwest port town.

The whale is Willy, a 22-foot, 7,000-pound Orca separated from his family pod and confined to the undersized tank of the North West Adventure Park, where he's too sad to perform tricks for his frustrated trainer Rae (Lori Petty) and park handyman Randolph (August Schellenberg).

Jesse's an angry challenge for his loving foster parents (Michael Madsen, Jayne Atkinson), but when he gets a court-ordered job removing graffiti at the Adventure Park, he finds a kindred spirit in Willy, leading Randolph - a member of the Northwest Haida Indian tribe - to teach him a cornball legend about a boy and his Orca, thus confirming Jesse's wide-eyed destiny.

When the park's owners (Michael Ironside, Richard Riehle) threaten to kill their uncooperative killer whale for the insurance money, Jesse plots a scheme to, you guessed it . . . "Free Willy."

Wincer must have simply conceded to the Donners' mandates, for nowhere will you find the showman's skill that he brought to "Phar Lap," "Quigley Down Under" and the classic TV miniseries "Lonesome Dove."

Instead, this is a pap-fest that pushes emotional buttons, forcing its actors to pout, sneer and smile idiotically while failing to elicit those feelings in the viewer.

Granted, the production is often gorgeous, some children might fall in love with Willy (both real and full-size mechanical versions), and the natural majesty of the Orca is captured in the authentic opening and closing scenes.

But from Willy's plaintive cry over the film's title to Michael Jackson's sniveling performance of "Will You Be There?" over the end credits, "Free Willy" is a well-intentioned crock that buckles under the weight of its own crass miscalculation.