Starman (1984)

Jeff Bridges was good in the groundbreaking special-effects movie Tron (though it had a two-dimensional plot, literally) but he really splayed his legs and displayed his physical acting chops in Starman, where he plays a crashlanded incorporeal alien that recreates a human body to reach its rendezvous extraction point at Flagstaff, Arizona. The alien, reincarnate as Karen Allen's mournfully deceased husband, takes more than baby steps in its new adult body; Bridges looks, with every shambling and doddering step, to be struggling to find his balance and center of gravity. The special effects are minimalist and just believable enough to carry the story -- as is the script -- nor does the acting get in the way. Karen Allen exudes emotion as she encounters and ultimately collaborates with her late husband's taciturn doppelganger -- and their parting is tender, loving, and hopeful. Starman is a movingly romantic tale, but it's unfair to brand it as a chick flick (which I define as a movie starring only chicks talking about chick stuff, such as Beaches or Terms of Endearment). Starman's setting is science fiction but its guts are the pains and joys of human intimacy and marital love -- a phenomenon that I believe generally requires a man and a woman to create and maintain. Starman may be nearly a quarter-century old but its script and acting help it easily hold its own hands-down as a classic. 4 stars.