Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) is an intelligence operative in the Middle East whose son, Robin (Andrew Stevens), is a powerful psychic. Plans of accompanying Robin to school for psychics in Chicago are disrupted when terrorists attack. Robin believes his father was killed in the attack, but Peter sees that the attack was meant to get him out of his son's life. Though he shot the man who betrayed him, Ben Childress (John Cassavetes), he failed to kill him. A year later, Peter is in Chicago to search for his son. The discovery of a psychic girl, Gillian (Amy Irving), provides a link to the school. Robin is not currently at the school and reports are that he died. Peter doesn't believe it. If Robin was dead, the efforts to thwart his search would end. In fact, Robin has been taken to a private home where he has a doctor assigned to him alone. It is clear that Robin's psychic powers have grown immensely but at the cost of his sanity.
The movie is unfocused. Rather than follow Peter in his hunt for his son, we get the overview of everyone doing their thing. There is Gillian having trouble controlling her developing powers, Hester (Carrie Snodgrass) acting as Peter's agent at the psychic school, Childress complaining to everyone about the problem du jour, Dr. McKeever (Charles Durning) trying to drown his regrets in alcohol, and others still. The reunion of Peter and Robin is incomprehensible to those not familiar with the book. Having done the mother with psychic daughter in Carrie (1976), De Palma decided he needed to balance that with a father who had a psychic son.
There are some surprises in the cast. Daryl Hannah stars as one of Gillian's classmates and Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue) is a uniformed cop concerned about damaging his new police car. His role offers some of the rare levity in this dark film.
It has its moments but is just so-so.
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