Mary Cantoral

Charly, directed by Ralph Nelson and written by Sterling Silliphant, is an adaptation of the book, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Charly is a beautifully filmed, written and directed film. It's an unusual film, even for 1968, with the New Hollywood in ascendance. The New Hollywood, which began in 1966 with Mike Nichols' adaptation of playwright Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, was in high gear. The year '68 was a time of social and political contestation and change. Charly both depicts and engages, via its adventurous photography, and melodically haunting tunes of Ravi Shankar, creative challenges to the status quo. Charly, the mentally handicapped man (IQ 59) and subject of a bold and potentially reckless scientific experiment, undergoes dramatic alterations of character during the course of the film. The acting of Cliff Robertson is quite good, as is that of Claire Bloom (Alice Kinnian, a doctoral student in psychology). The stylistic flourishes in Charly, which evoke mood and convey conflict, go hand in hand with the technical achievements and artistic experimentation of the period. Far from detracting from the film's subject, they build momentum and illuminate Charly's inner turmoil. Charly is a film of its period yet also is universal in its depiction of a human striving to know and to love. Ultimately, what the director and screenwriter seem to be conveying, is that even in our human fallibility, we are all connected in our strivings to go beyond what is given. Highly recommended.