An alien life form, sent to Earth with a message of peace, enters a woman's rural Wisconsin home, and takes on the likeness of her recently deceased husband. Now with aggressive agents in hot pursuit, he forces her to transport him to Arizona where he will meet his alien compadres who will return him home to his native land. "Starman" is recycled science fiction from director John Carpenter who opts for an amiable approach and skirts more intriguing methods in telling his story. Also, although Jeff Bridges' Oscar nominated and much praised performance is serviceable, his robotic alien character remains too odd and unable to generate the necessary emotions required of it. The great, overlooked performance is that of Karen Allen who does an excellent job of conveying the complex and confusing emotions a grieving woman in that outlandish position would be experiencing. I also enjoyed the over the top performance of Charles Martin Smith as a gung ho governmental contractor. "Starman" is enjoyable fodder that I wish had gone deeper both with its plot and its characters.
