Anna to the Infinite Power

From the first time I saw this movie I was haunted by the content & the extraordinary performance of Martha Byrne who was only 12 at the time. Martha didn't have to say much, all you had to do was watch her expressions to know what the child was going through. The writing was excellent & the actors were awesome (especially Ms Byrne). Although I saw this movie at least 15 yrs ago, I never forgot it & have often wondered why it isn't being shown on TV now with all the DNA & cloning in the news. It's taken me 15 yrs to get a copy of the movie & when I watched it again tonight, it was even better than I remembered. This movie would be a classic if enough people were able to see it. Mark Patton plays the older brother who doesn't quite know what to make of his genius but precocious sister. Watching Anna discover herself & gain the respect & help of her brother was a beautiful example of what siblings (even squabbling siblings) can be when love is present. This is a movie that I've never been able to get out of my mind & now that I've seen it again, I never want to forget a moment of it.

The concept is interesting but the movie is let down in several ways. 1st the tension dissipates way early when the secret is revealed a long time before the mid point even. After that it's more TV family sitcom than anything. Some of the logic doesn't stand up to much of a look - the father seems to be talking about some other kid and not his own when the subject of Anna's strange ways is ever raised. The tension finally ratchets up in the last act but just when you think it's going to finish well it just kind of stops dead. Like that.

The cast is an interesting mix of faces from the period and before with a lot of them from daytime dramas. It was nice to see the beautiful Dina Merrill again as well as Jack Gilford - the 1st time for me to see him since the movie Cocoon. He was great as the Doc in Catch-22 and he was good as the doctor here too.

A small side note - this movie looks like it 'inspired' an episode of the brilliant and massive hit TV series the X Files. The XF ep is called 'Eve' and it looks like the writers Kenneth Biller & Chris Brancato 'loosely based' their story and script on Anna to the Infinite Power! To their credit they did a very good job and in many ways the X Files ep is actually better than this movie. It certainly has a _much_ more satisfying ending for 1 thing and the logic of the plot is solid. Ace show creator Chris Carter certainly knows how to get the best from his talented people.

I just caught this on Showtime this morning as well. This movie redefines hiding from senior citizen nurses, as in it's never been less thrilling. Also, whats up with the rotary phone that looks exactly like a normal handheld touch-tone wall phone? This movie is so lousy i wouldn't even see the point in writing about it. But Showtime felt it was good enough yo air at least twice so i'm just balancing out the universe here.

This movie (and its book counterpart) almost seems prophetic in this day and age. A story that came out in the early eighties, set in the late nineties; dealing human cloning and the moral, ethical, and philosophical consequences. The film itself is a bit poorly constructed (probably due to its shoe string budget) and the acting is thin and amateurish. However, its unusual story was quite unique for its day. Also I find it very fascinating that the world would be contemplating the same issues and at the time period as in this little movie. I say it worth seeing once. Even just to wonder about the possibilities and consequences of cloning.

The story is well-written, but the overall movie suffers from poor directing, acting and cliche characters.

The acting comes to first note. Through the entire film it's as if the actors are reading their lines from boards across the stage. Early Anna comes across as someone trying to portray an annoying brat rather than just an annoying brat. That said, it is interesting to see the actress show some chops as she progresses to her later stages, where she seems more relaxed and normal. I can only guess that comes from either growing experience in front of the camera-- or a personality more suited to her normal person.

But down to the last scene the acting of all seems forced, word-by-word without any improvisation. As I find it hard to believe they'd manage to have that many bad actors by coincidence, I have to believe it's the directing that causes such an amazing phenomena.

The plus side is a story with a reasonable plot, sensible progression, and lack of jump-the-shark stupid moments (common to this type of movie these days). The story held right to the end, without any sudden or unexpected letdowns (even if it did leave things slightly in the air, the possible outcomes were plausible and it was a decent conclusion).

One lack of logic was the climax near the end. Since cloning is not against the law (in the United States; it is banned in some other countries), there was really no reason for what was portrayed in the movie (spoilers withheld). That issue didn't ruin the movie, but it did make astute viewers question the motivation and extreme actions (or intended actions) of some characters. Since all this was done under full disclosure with willing participants, there was no reason for well, the entire last 10 or 15 minutes of plot. That was the one place I noticed where the ball was dropped a little. Nevertheless the story continued of its own right and worked out reasonably well.

Side note: I found it interesting that they used Apple II as their primary computer-on-set, since by 1983 the IBM PC had taken the market by storm. However the Apple was still going strong and had solidly immersed itself in the educational and publishing community (it took IBM some 15 years to break Apple's strangle-hold in those areas), so historically, use of that computer system that was a fairly accurate portrayal and pegs the time during which the movie was made.