Powder - [No Tickets]

Shockingly bad fantastical feel-good movie. Sean Patrick Flannery plays the title role, that of a young hairless albino boy. His mother died at childbirth when she was struck by lightning, and Powder himself seems to have some connection to electricity. He is raised by his grandparents, and mostly kept out of sight, until they die. A local social worker, Jessie (Mary Steenburgen) and the county sherriff (Lance Hendrickson) discover Powder, and bring him into contact with society. Soon they discover he is a supergenius with psychokinetic powers, but that doesn’t keep the local bullies from picking on him (you’d think they’d be to scared to even glance at him, but hey, they needed to advance the plot). Most of the movie revolves around the following principle: People do something cruel or stupid — Powder does something magical and heartfelt — People don’t learn — repeat. The dialogue is insipid and meaningless. Jeff Goldblum adds a bit of color as a science teacher, but he seems to be replaying his familiar tongue-tied genius. The film take bizaare, unexplained turns, seemingly so they can repeat the routine and show another touchingly sweet scene with Powder acting nice and everyone else acting mean. Not even a hint of explanation for any of the procedings is given in the script, but by the end you’ll be feeling too numb to notice.