Cocoon

I watched this when it came out in 1985. I was 32. It was good back then. I just rewatched it in 2021. I am now 67. I have experinced firsthand elder parents and now my own age in the meantime. This movie is much more meaningful now. A great movie.

Six elderly people (Oscar-winner Don Ameche in more of a lifetime achievement award, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Maureen Stapleton and Gwen Verdon) start swimming at a locked up housed swimming pool that has strange pods in it and then start doing things that contradict their ages. Of course the pods really house aliens from another planet and they are the reasons for the "fountain of youth". Ron Howard's sympathetic and clever direction saves this uneven project that starts out as a pure comedy and then turns into a rough drama as the clock ticks away. Brian Dennehy and Steve Guttenberg shine in smart supporting roles. 4 stars out of 5.

COCOON is not at all similar to every other science fiction movie (the ending is a pure exception), but this uses fantasy and magic as a way to express a heartwarmth feeling. What happens when the good elderly citizens of a retirement community discover the "fountain of youth"? It's movies like this going away from the perilous trap and concentrates deeply on our human characteristics. A large cast of older stars, including the late couple Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, contribute to the warmth and amusement of a non-violent "sci-fi" picture that is a breed apart from the rest. They act as if they're "young again" with incredible energy, and the moments offer the kind and gentle possibilities that wouldn't redeem this as science fiction, but it is. Ron "Ritchie" Howard gives this a whole new acclaim for internally giving us the human spirit that lies within an outside force. For those who crave hard on science fiction, COCOON is a slight misunderstanding due to the light-hearted story it has to offer. What's more entertaining than seeing old folks push over the limits of their acting potential? As Wilford Brimley once said in Quaker Oats commercials, "It's the right thing to do.". Which also means COCOON is the right movie for showing off a different dimension of our feelings inside. And different is right!

1985's Cocoon, directed by Ron Howard, asks - would you give up the emotional, mental and physical pain of growing old if you could?

Baby boomers today feel that death is optional and seek out whatever it takes to make them feel and look young - so if Cocoon came out in 2008, it would perhaps resonate even more.

The story takes place in a rest home inhabited by a group of friends: Arthur (Don Ameche), Benjamin (Wilford Brimley) and his wife Marilyn (Maureen Stapleton), Joseph (Hume Cronyn) and his wife Alma (Jessica Tandy) and a perky red-head Bess (Gwen Verdon). The guys have taken to going to an abandoned pool house and swimming - without permission, of course.

Then the building is rented by a man (Brian Dennehy). This same man also rents a boat from Jack Bonner (Steve Guttenberg), who is down on his luck and can use the money. He watches Jack, his beautiful assistant Kitty (Tahnee Welch) and some other people skindiving and bringing up huge silver packages. These packages are then dumped into the pool.

After the men swim there one day, they find themselves suddenly rejuvenated and start having sex, staying up, nightclubbing and having more energy. Meantime, on the boat, Jack has gotten a look at Kitty getting ready for bed...and notices that she removes her skin as well as her clothes and glows in the dark.

This movie has many poignant moments - Alma coming to grips with the fact that her husband has always cheated, and the saddest of all, when Bernard (Jack Gilford) who has been violently opposed to the whole idea of the pool as a fountain of youth, desperately brings his wife there.

Howard cast this with an eye toward man's normal immortality - children - with Raquel Welch's daughter and Tyrone Power's son, Tyrone Power Jr. As Pillsbury - while telling the story of people who have a chance at a different kind of immortality. Both Power and Welch bear strong resemblance to their famous parents.

The old-timers in the cast are among the greatest actors of their generation and sadly, we've lost nearly all of them now. Only Wilford Brimley remains. The film revived Don Ameche's career, and the cast returned for a sequel, "Cocoon: The Return."

A wonderful film to see the old stars in a very touching story and to ask yourself - if you had the chance, would you take it?

This is one of my all-time favorite movies, for a variety of reasons: A) It treats the theme of aging with such tenderness and doesn't reduce the older characters to props, B) It evokes questions about the supernatural/the possibility of life "out there," and C) The location (Florida) looks so pleasant and inviting. I have loved this film since I was a child in the 80s, and it is still one that I watch over and over (and I still cry at the same spots every time). I have to also say that--in my opinion at least--the characteristic feature of every great movie is a great score/theme melody. Cocoon definitely has it, yet without feeling "epic" and overpowering; the same plucked melody chimes in quietly at all the right moments in the film, lending a profound and quiet connection with each character (even the extra-terrestrial ones). There are moments in this film where, if you don't shed a tear, there must be something wrong with you. Highly recommended film :-)