Cinema: Medical Menace

Charly is an odd little movie about mental retardation and the dangers of all-conquering science, done with a dash of whimsy. It sounds like an impossible combination, and in fact it is. Cliff Robertson plays the hero, a mugging, clowning, saintly fool so retarded mentally that he cannot write his own name correctly. He agrees to a brain operation that will spark his intelligence. Almost overnight, Charly is transformed into a debonair, Shakespeare-quoting sage who knocks off philosophy, calculus and microbiology with dazzling ease. Yet the experiment has a hitch: Charly has fallen in love with his teacher (Claire Bloom), but his childlike emotions have not kept pace with his mental gymnastics. Worse still, he learns that his brilliance is ephemeral and that he will slowly drift back to imbecility.

As honest science fiction, Charly would be laughable at best. But with its contrived poignancy and shallow pretensions at making a statement about the supposed menace of unchecked medical experimentation, it is downright ludicrous. As the moron turned polymath, Robertson displays a certain flair for Chaplinesque humor. The impact of his performance, however, is lessened by Producer-Director Ralph Nelson’s determination to prove that he learned how to be new and now at Expo ’67: almost every other sequence is done in split screens, multiple images, still shots or slow motion. There is a modest redeeming feature for tourists and lovers of travelogues: the historic sights in and around Charly’s Boston setting have never been more lovingly filmed.