Cocoon **** (1985, Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Jack Gilford, Steve Guttenberg, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon) – Classic Movie Review 3065

Don Ameche won the 1986 Best Supporting Actor Oscar as one of the Florida golden boys and girls who are rejuvenated thanks to the magical presence of some pretty pods in the swimming pool they are illicitly using. Cocoon (1985) won a second Oscar for Best Visual Effects for Ken Ralston, Ralph McQuarrie, Scott Farrar and David Berry.

When the group of trespassing senior citizens from a nearby retirement community secretly swim in the pool containing the alien cocoons, they find themselves strangely energised with youthful vigour. Yes, it is Invasion of the Body Snatchers in reverse, really.

The aliens return to earth to retrieve the cocoons containing the people they had left behind from an earlier trip. They had stored these recovered cocoons in the private swimming pool of a house they had rented in a small Florida town, but the pool is not as private as they’d hoped…

The adorable performances from the loveable old-time performers and by young star Steve Guttenberg, the engaging screenplay by Tom Benedek based on the novel by David Saperstein and Ron Howard’s spot-on direction combine to make this 1985 sci-fi fantasy film extremely warm, totally beguiling and enormously entertaining.

Cocoon is a winning movie to savour and relish, even for those who might be usually immune to sentimentality and sweet wrinklies.

Also in the golden cast are Wilford Brimley (only 50!), Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Jack Gilford, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon, Tyrone Power Jnr, Tahnee Welch, Barret Oliver, Linda Harrison and Herta Ware Howard. Ron Howard’s brother Clint, mother, father and wife all appear in the film.

It grossed a hefty $76 million in the US and the inevitable Cocoon: The Return followed in 1988 with the same cast.

The production rented Dr Chester Babat and Doris Babat’s Boca Ciega Bay home and built a makeshift temporary structure over their outdoor pool for filming. The Babats later built a permanent pool house exactly based on the film’s design, where they still chill out.

It is Howard’s first collaboration with composer James Horner, who went on to write the scores for Howard’s films Willow (1988), Apollo 13 (1995), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). He died on 22 June 2015 in a plane crash, aged 61.

Former child star Barret Oliver now teaches photography in Los Angeles.

Wilford Brimley was at least 20 years younger than the other actors playing the senior citizens and only turned 50 during filming. He died on 1 August 2020 in St George, Utah, from diabetes complications, aged 85. ‘I can’t talk about acting,’ he said. ‘I don’t know anything about it. I was just lucky enough to get hired.’

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3065

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