Forever Young (1992) PG
Forever Young is a romantic drama in which Mel Gibson plays a pre-World War II test pilot, Daniel McCormick. Starting in 1939, Daniel seems to have it all, a top test pilot in love with the ideal women, Helen (Isabel Glasser). Daniel is clearly in a position to be married to the love of his life but perhaps his fear of commitment doesn’t allow him to “get the words past his throat”.
Although not shown, it’s quite clear that day after day, Daniel struggles to propose to Helen and would rather risk his life testing planes than opening up to his girlfriend.
Daniel realizes his time is up when Helen is suddenly hit by a car and declared brain-dead. Rather than sit by her side and watch her slowly die, he chooses to go to ‘sleep’ for a year and escape his misery as a test-dummy for a top-secret cryogenic experiment. So top-secret that his capsule was labeled as a water-heater and remained in storage for much longer than expected.
Some 50 years later, the capsule is accidently opened by a child (Elijah Wood), who befriends Daniel and helps him understand the changed world he was thawed into.
Daniel is written off as a loony by the military, as he searches for the few who knew anything about this seemingly successful experiment.
Stars including Jamie Lee Curtis, Elijah Wood and Mel Gibson carry this film beyond its simple story line. Forever Young demonstrates kindness, decency and commitment, character traits that aren’t frequent enough in today’s society and in contemporary films.
