FOREVER YOUNG, with Mel Gibson, George Wendt, Isabel Glasser, Jamie Lee Curtis and Elijah Wood. Directed by Steve Miner. On Panasia, New York and Ocean circuits. THIS film takes absolutely no risks on the box office returns front. First, there are the bankable stars, Mel Gibson (as test pilot Daniel McCormick) and Jamie Lee Curtis (as single mother Claire Cooper). With each passing performance, Gibson becomes a parody of his boyish self. Forever Young features the apparently obligatory bare bottom sequence (rumour has it Gibson has it written into every contract that he reveal his backside), the flashing smile andthe irresistible charm. Next on the lucre-oriented check list is romantic interest and Forever Young has decades worth. Small town USA 1939 and McCormick is happily in love with his childhood sweetheart Helen (Isabel Glasser). Then she has an accident. Distraught, hopeless and despairing that Helen will never come out of her coma, McCormick decides to become the guinea pig in an experiment conducted by his scientist friend Harry Finley (George Wendt). The experiment involves freezing him for a year . ''If Helen comes through, wake me up, OK?'' McCormick whispers. Unfortunately, through air force bureaucracy and Finley's untimely death, McCormick's cryogenic coffin is forgotten until 1992 when two boys find and open it while rooting through an air force warehouse. Here we have the next desirable element for box office success - children. Forever Young 's contribution to the world of child stars is Elijah Wood, an engaging child and a fair actor. One of the high points of the film is the humorous exchanges between Gibson and Wood. However, although the film is replete with the elements needed to have film-goers flocking to theatres, the tear-jerk plot becomes a little lost, as though neglected in the mad rush to concoct the ultimate saleable film. The story wanders aimlessly in an attempt to find a series of cohesive ideas strong enough to suspend disbelief. When this fails the film resorts to using incomprehensible scientific jargon to explain the physics of how McCormick is frozen and why the process has a detrimental effect upon his health. Inoffensive, entertaining and well-filmed, yes, but credible, subtle, and a classic, no.
