Copycat "Starcrossed' proves surprisingly entertaining

A being from another world comes across the Voyager space probe's invitation to visit Earth and takes our hospitality at face value. She travels to our planet and adapts to alien ways through the help of an earthling who falls in love with her. The government is chasing them, however, and it's a race against time to get her back home.

Sound vaguely familiar? It should.

With just a few "new" wrinkles, "Starcrossed," an "ABC Thursday Night Movie," is startingly similar in plot to the John Carpenter theater film Starman," (which was accused of having similarities to "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial").

Heck, even the titles are pretty darn close.

The charitably minded could give "Starcrossed" the benefit of the doubt. After all, the TV movie (at 7 tonight) must have completed production before "Starman's" December release.

Still, cynical ones might point out that "Starman," which won great notices for Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen, was in development at Columbia Pictures for four years. And Hollywood isn't exactly the best place to keep a secret.

Now here's the kicker: Although it's no great piece of science fiction, "Starcrossed" is a surprisingly entertaining blend of romance, adventure, suspense and comedy. If you can ignore its obvious copycat nature and the cliches, which I admit is no easy task, there's a good time to be had with this innocuous, reasonably well-acted production.

The principal reason writer-director Jeffrey Bloom pulls this off is a fellow named James Spader. An actor of ingratiating talents, Spader plays the Earth-born half of our "starcrossed" lovers with sincerity, spunk and (can I resist?) down-to-earth charm.

Belinda Bauer's low-keyed stranded alien is likable enough, yet it's Spader who carries the day. Even when the dialogue starts sounding all too familiar, the actor manages to be innovative and fun to watch.

Mary (Ms. Bauer) is a fugitive from a distant planet that has come under totalitarian rule. The alien has been on Earth for only two days and, in addition to the U.S. government (continuing its filmic tradition of treating visitors from space shabbily), she is pursued by two extraterrestrials who look like refugees from a punk-rock group.

Unfortunately, cursed by the ineptness that scars most sci-fi cinema and television dramas, "Starcrossed" is chock-full of scientific and logistic impossibilities. Either out of stupidity or an overriding desire for a "neat" scene, science usually gets short shrift in these science-fiction attempts.

The first scene is of Mary fleeing from those two mean-looking galactic dudes. Although her pursuers are moving at a leisurely pace and she's running on legs propelled by fear, they gain on her. Don't ask me how. Emerging from an alley, Mary bumps into three chivalrous gents ready to defend her. The most sympathetic of this trio is an auto mechanic named Joey (Spader).

"Do you live around here?" he asks with a smile.
"No, I'm visiting," she says _ with a straight face.

Joey soon is introducing Mary to the wonders of chili, beer and Chinese food. He assumes she's a Soviet defector on the run from KGB agents. "I'm thinking you're from another country," he tells her. "I'm hearing an accent. Am I right, baby?"

Blessed with telepathic and telekinetic powers, Mary seems to have an easier time assimilating to our customs and habits than Bridges' alien did in "Starman." Like E.T., she gleans quite a bit from television.

There are some things, though, that need further explanation. Kissing and sex, for instance, are no longer practiced on her planet (draw your own conclusions about the mental health of its inhabitants), and Joey is an eager guide to these earthly pleasures.

Having also learned from Joey of courage and freedom, Mary decides she must return to her home planet and continue the good fight. That means getting to her ship before the alignment of planets makes the trip impossible.

© KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS, 31 January 1985, The Baton Rouge State Times (Thank you, Susan!)