A Flow of Misguided Emotions

IN THE FILM "E.T." actor Henry Thomas plays the shy boy who befriends the extra-terrestial with a handful of Reeses Pieces. Thomas innate talents were often overshadowed by the loving, leathery alien, but in Director Jerry Schatzberg's new film. Misunderstood. Thomas captivates the audience with his sensitive, believable portrayal of a young boy grieving his mother's death.

Thomas as Andrew attracts a strong empathy and frequently tears as he faces the loneliness of losing his mother. In addition, he confronts alienation of his father (Gene Hackman), who is unable to comfort his sensitive son because of his own excruciating grief.

The film is set in Tunisia. It opens as Hackman's wife. Kate, is being buried. The remainder of the film elucidates the family's response to the apparent sudden death.

Unfortunately, screenwriter Barra Grant has created a rather emotionally precocious nine-year-old boy who deals with his grief more effectively than his father. It is often hard to imagine that Andrew can be at once mourning for his mother, attempting to capture his father's affections and lavishing attention on his cherubic younger brother. Miles (Huckleberry Fox). Andrew's jealousy at his father's distinct favoritism is inexplicably missing: he seems to accept his father's coolness-almost indifference--without question.

All throughout the film. Thomas and Hackman seem to be struggling to escape from the rather meaningless lines that have been provided for them. When Andrew calls his father in the desert after an argument, he says desperately, "don't worry. Dad, I'll pay for the call. You can take it out of my allowance." Thomas pulls off this unfathomable statement with a desperate, sometimes shrill voice, making the audience wish that the actors could have had a better script to develop their characters.

THERE ARE A FEW SCENES in which the lines don't detract from the emotions the actors portray. As they flicker by. Thomas succeeds in delineating his pain. When he gets out of a shower, shivering and wet. he reaches out to an empty towel rack and he calls out "Mom, I need a towel" It is the fleeting moments like this that give the film its most potent and forceful moments. Unfortunately Schatzberg's attempt to create a collage of scenes in which Andrew and his father struggle with their loss is frequently uneven and ultimately unsatisfying.

Hackman is excellent as the frigid father, who represses his grief and most importantly his love for his older son, favoring his younger son who reminds him of his deceased wife. Hackman, like Thomas, seems actually to be mourning, and his lines are delivered with sincerity and credibility, but Schatzberg's interactions between father and son are frequently awkward despite Hackman's excellent performance.

Huckleberry Fox, who plays the younger son. Miles, is both adorable and effective, but is too cute and cheerful in contrast to his pained father and brother. Schatzberg expects us to believe that he is too young to grieve for his mother. He doesn't cry, but he does show enough sensitivity to plead with his father not to blame Andrew when they spend a day exploring a crowded market. Again, the audience responds to his spunky antics but as most of the film's characterizations, it is seemingly inconsistent.

The film is not only occasionally awkward but also contrived. When Andrew takes a silent walk away from his home, he comes upon a Muslim funeral. He weeps for the unknown person who is being buried, and is noticed by one of the mourners (who wouldn't, it's hard not to in his preppiered sweater), who invites Andrew back to his village for a feast. But Schatzberg doesn't develop a relationship between the two, so the man merely serves as a token. This is the funeral that Andrew never attended for his mother, and the tears shed for the old man are those he wants so much to shed for his mother. Schatzberg belittles and manipulates human grief at this moment, and it is only the fascinating glimpse of the village and the comfort that Thomas seems to receive that compensates for the director's misunderstanding of grief. Although the actor's fine talents are sometimes obscured by the confusing intentions of the director and screenwriter, "Misunderstood" does offer, along with a glimpse of the spectacular geography of East Africa, a chance to watch the characters grapple with the pain of living after the tragic death of a loved one.