Okay, there's this weird scientist, Sean Connery, who's hidden himself away in the tropical rainforest of South America and has been incommunicado for years. A "foundation" sends down a youngish, award-winning scientist, played by Lorraine Bracco, to monitor his behavior, find out what's up, and decide whether or not to cut off his funding. Lots of barbed exchanges here between the old curmudgeon and the independent new woman. Some comedy too as he slips her a psychedelic that cures headaches. As it develops, Connery, with Bracco's help, finds the source of a cure for lymphoma in the top terrace of the rainforest. Alas, before he can harvest enough of the stuff to explore the possibility of its being synthesized, some big industrial operation plows a road through the forest and destroys the trees in which the stuff grows. Bittersweet ending. Humankind is hoist by its own petard by what some ecologists call a "progress trap." As compensation the old fox and the young feminist become friends. It's a bad trade.
Between 1960 and 1990 one fifth of the world's rainforest was lost. In Brazil, where this film is supposedly set, the Amazon rainforest between 1991 (when the film was shot) and the year 2000 has lost between 415 and 587 square kilometers, an area about twice the size of Portugal. The tragedy is not that the forest is gone. Who cares about wood? It's the consequences, many of them falling into the category of "unknown unknowns" that counts. WOULD a biochemist of Sean Connery's persistence and quirkiness have found a way of combating lymphoma (or anything else)? We're not going to find out now. Among the "known known" consequences, the deforestation has eliminated entire species of plants and animals at an alarming rate, including one primate. (Humans are primates too.) The little message behind the story is, of course, fashionable and politically correct, which for some people makes it wrong.
Lorraine Bracco, with her bulky figure and oddly handsome features, seems a likable woman. You can tell because in all of her performances she seems to be playing herself. She can be loud and stubborn but one never senses genuine contempt behind her shouting. I wouldn't mind having an argument with her. It might be amusing. Sean Connery plays a role that must by now be familiar to him, almost shopworn, and he does his schtick well. There appears to be a lot of half-naked Guaranis running around, acting as translators and comic relief, but this is really a two-person picture.
At one point Bracco is tripping on this native stuff and having a hell of a good time. She babbles on about marketing it for adults, putting sugar in it, and calling it by some pronounceable name. I wish that she'd have accomplished that because unless we recognize a progress trap when we see one coming, we may need that psychedelic elixir.
Between 1960 and 1990 one fifth of the world's rainforest was lost. In Brazil, where this film is supposedly set, the Amazon rainforest between 1991 (when the film was shot) and the year 2000 has lost between 415 and 587 square kilometers, an area about twice the size of Portugal. The tragedy is not that the forest is gone. Who cares about wood? It's the consequences, many of them falling into the category of "unknown unknowns" that counts. WOULD a biochemist of Sean Connery's persistence and quirkiness have found a way of combating lymphoma (or anything else)? We're not going to find out now. Among the "known known" consequences, the deforestation has eliminated entire species of plants and animals at an alarming rate, including one primate. (Humans are primates too.) The little message behind the story is, of course, fashionable and politically correct, which for some people makes it wrong.
Lorraine Bracco, with her bulky figure and oddly handsome features, seems a likable woman. You can tell because in all of her performances she seems to be playing herself. She can be loud and stubborn but one never senses genuine contempt behind her shouting. I wouldn't mind having an argument with her. It might be amusing. Sean Connery plays a role that must by now be familiar to him, almost shopworn, and he does his schtick well. There appears to be a lot of half-naked Guaranis running around, acting as translators and comic relief, but this is really a two-person picture.
At one point Bracco is tripping on this native stuff and having a hell of a good time. She babbles on about marketing it for adults, putting sugar in it, and calling it by some pronounceable name. I wish that she'd have accomplished that because unless we recognize a progress trap when we see one coming, we may need that psychedelic elixir.