An Act of Politics or an Act of Moviegoing?

Greg, age 8, wants his mother to take him to the movies. He wants to see a movie about a teen-age boy who possesses incredibly pale skin and supernatural powers. Some of his classmates have seen “Powder.” Why can’t he?

Mom is trying to make up her mind. “Powder” may be a Disney production but, as has been widely reported, it was written and directed by a man who in 1988 was sentenced to three years in prison for sexually molesting a 12-year-old boy. Victor Salva served 15 months before he was paroled. His victim, Nathan Winters, now 20, has urged the public to boycott Salva’s work.

And now this particular mom was asking me about “Powder,” her usual cinematic worries compounded by Salva’s troubled past. I saw it over the weekend.

*

Truth is, it wasn’t our first choice. I’d driven out to Riverside to visit my friend Wes, a movie buff. We’d missed the early show for “Home for the Holidays,” with Holly Hunter. “Powder” had the virtue of timing.

No, this wasn’t a film I was eager to see. The previews were interesting, but I’m not much for the supernatural.

But I liked it. One thumb up. On a scale of 1 to 10, it’s maybe a 7. A great film, it isn’t. But “Powder” has a charm that was reminiscent of sentimental short stories by Ray Bradbury that I read in my late teens--science fiction with a heart.

Had my friend, the mom, been interested in seeing “Powder” herself, I wouldn’t have given away much of the plot. But she wanted to know whether to take her boy. So if you wish to be surprised by this movie, you may want to stop reading now.

It is a stormy night in the rural Midwest. An ambulance is rushing a pregnant woman to the hospital. Wisps of smoke rise from her body. Later, a doctor informs her husband that she has died in delivery; the baby has survived, with complications. The father, distraught, insists the boy isn’t his. A monitor measuring the infant’s brain waves reacts with mysterious fury.

Fast forward, about 16 years. An elderly farmer has been found dead in his home, of natural causes. In the basement, authorities find his grandson, a family secret. It is soon clear that the boy, nicknamed “Powder,” possesses extraordinary mental powers.

This gentle soul becomes a ward of the state and lives in a facility for wayward boys. Among them is a clique whose members antagonize the misfit. Powder at once awes and alienates them with his ability to magnetize silverware. Nifty special effects.

The boy is given the chance to attend public school. In a science class he makes eyes at a girl. Then an experiment in electricity lifts Powder above his desk. More nifty special effects. The teacher begins to understand that Powder’s gifts are somehow related to electrical energy--so too is Powder’s sad loneliness. In a flashback, we learn why--but I’ll keep that secret.

There is a good sheriff and a bad deputy, and it is they who feel the full extent of Powder’s magic, and deservedly so. A dramatic peak comes when the sheriff brings Powder to his home to visit his comatose wife, dying of cancer. Powder touches her and reads her thoughts; she wants her husband and their son to mend their differences before she dies. “She thinks I’m an angel,” Powder says.

It is an oddly spiritual film that is deeply concerned about human values--indeed, family values.

There is only one moment when viewers may pause and think of Victor Salva. We already know of Powder’s affection for a girl, but in a later scene he is noticed staring at a shirtless boy in the state home’s gym. “Why don’t you take a picture?” a bully taunts, expressing doubts about Powder’s sexual preference--a confrontation that leads to the tale’s resolution.

Actually, I think Powder was just envious--wishing he looked normal.

*

Wes was hesitant about “Powder,” but then he thought boycotting it would be an act of hypocrisy. He doesn’t boycott Roman Polanski’s films, after all. The differences, Wes reasons, are that Polanski preferred young girls while Salva preferred boys, and that Salva served the time while Polanski fled the country.

Crossing the invisible picket line didn’t strike me as a political act. It felt more like just going to the movies. And while Greg’s mom had misgivings about Salva, she seemed rightfully more concerned about the film’s substance than the director’s past.

Like many parents, she tries to be careful but not too restrictive. So Greg’s seen “The Indian in the Cupboard,” “Casper” and “Apollo 13,” but Mom refused to let him see “Batman Forever” and “Mortal Kombat.” She took him to see “Ninja Turtles III” and worried later “because he kept doing a lot of karate kicks.” And she wishes she hadn’t taken him to see “Stargate” back when he was 7. That was a little too scary.

“He gets more freaked out,” Mom says, “when people are really mean to each other.”

Well, people are mean to Powder, which may be bad news for Greg. But in a story so fantastic, the meanness adds a dose of reality. It helps with the suspension of disbelief.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311. Please include a phone number. Address TimesLink or Prodigy e-mail to YQTU59A ( via the Internet: *YQTU59A@prodigy.com).