Miracle Mile (1989)Directed and Written by Steve DeJarnatt
Screens tonight Tues. Sept. 6; 7 PM
Max Blooms Cafe Noir Fullerton, CA
Four Scoops of Bosco
The opening sequences of Steve DeJarnatt's ''Miracle Mile'' are so playfully disarming that the movie feels more like a kooky modern love story than a film about nuclear war.
One afternoon Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards), a droopy young trombone player with a striking resemblance to Glenn Miller, spots his dream girl, Julie Peters (Mare Winningham), at a museum exhibition depicting human history all the way back to the Big Bang. Their attraction is instantaneous, and after a delirious romp through a candy-colored Los Angeles, they make a date for later that night. Failing to keep the assignation because of a freak electrical accident that prevents his alarm clock from ringing in time, Harry dashes to their rendezvous at Johnnie's Coffee Shop on Wilshire Boulevard. But it is 4 A.M., and Julie has left hours earlier.
Outside the shop, a phone rings in an empty booth. Harry picks it up and hears the frantic voice of someone named Chip who says he is in a North Dakota missile silo and is trying to reach his father. Harry believes the fractured message he hears - that America is beginning a nuclear strike within the hour. Hysterically, he rushes into the shop to warn the assorted night crawlers of impending doom. Understandably, their first reaction is that he must be crazy. And for much of the movie, we don't know whether or not to go along with Harry, either.
As ''Miracle Mile'' zigzags forward, its scenes of 4 A.M. panic on nearly empty streets have an antic comic energy that recalls the long night of ''American Graffiti.'' One scene in which a couple of policemen are set on fire in a gas station has the giddy sense of reckless adventure that almost cancels the horror of the incineration. And as Harry decides to rescue his true love rather than flee as fast as he can, his romanticism seems as dubiously impulsive as his readiness to believe a strange voice on the telephone.
The lightness of the director's touch allows him to drop in dark observations in the most casual way. It seems, for instance, that almost everyone in Los Angeles, even Julie's kindly grandmother, has a gun and is ready to use it without much thought.
The movie's eerily euphoric mood only bogs down near the end, as the first morning light creeps over the city and a general panic sets in, producing instant gridlock, looting and total chaos. At that point, ''Miracle Mile,'' which opens today at the Criterion and other theaters, becomes a conventional melodrama of two lovers clinging to each other in the storm.
As Harry and Julie, Mr. Edwards and Ms. Winningham make an unusually refreshing pair. Mr. Edwards gives Harry the same appealing gawkiness that he brought to ''Revenge of the Nerds,'' the movie that made him famous. Ms. Winningham imbues Julie with a flashing intelligence and sweetness.
From ''On the Beach'' to ''The Day After,'' depictions of nuclear threat have almost invariably come cloaked in a mood of official warning. ''Miracle Mile'' is a movie that takes a deep breath and shucks off most of the usual solemnity to wonder again, what if?
LOVE AMID THE RUINS - MIRACLE MILE, directed and written by Steve DeJarnatt; director of photography, Theo Van De Sande; edited by Stephen Semel and Kathie Weaver; music by Tangerine Dream; production designer, Christopher Horner; produced by John Daly and Derek Gibson; released by Hemdale Pictures. Running time: 87 minutes. This film is rated R. Harry Washello...Anthony Edwards Julie Peters...Mare Winningham Ivan Peters...John Agar Lucy Peters...Lou Hancock Wilson...Mykel T. Williamson Charlotta...Kelly Minter Gerstead...Kurt Fuller Landa...Denise Crosby Cook...Robert Doqui Waitress...O-Lan Jones
Reviewed by Stephen Holden
Mr. Holden Writes About Film for the New York Times
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