kevinolzak Review of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976 TV Movie)

John Travolta's dramatic breakthrough

[8/10 · 1 March 2014]

1976's "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" has gained legendary status in the careers of both John Travolta and Glynnis O'Connor, for it is due to their performances, and the genuine anguish in its depiction of budding adolescent love, that this TV-movie still endures beyond what all of the naysayers would have you believe. The early scenes with the very young Tod do tend to be overtly cloying, but it immediately establishes the young Gina's attitude toward her new neighbor, at one point actually calling him a 'monster.' As the years pass, she really only sees him once a year on his birthday, the only girl in attendance, now simply looking at him as a curiosity. Once the exposition concludes, the film can take its time with their relationship, how he's always watching her from his expansive pad, isolated from any germs that could easily spell death for him. It really is a marvelous script, Glynnis O'Connor's Gina at first willing to humiliate Tod just to impress her friends (among them Kelly Ward, Vernee Watson, and P. J. Soles), but gradually coming to realize how much he has idolized her, which both flatters her and scares her ("Tod, what are you doing to me?"). Yes, it may be carefully calculated, even contrived, but when the actors deliver, it has the desired effect. As for the ending that so many dislike, how could they conclude it any other way? SPOILER AHEAD- As Paul Williams sings "What Would They Say" (uncredited in the film itself), Tod chooses to be free to pursue his only love, leaving behind the dedicated parents responsible for his well-being, still asleep and unaware, equal parts heart warming and tragic, just like the angst of teenage love. No matter how old we get, we never forget that first love, or the obstacles that needed to be overcome, which Williams beautifully renders as Gina rides away with Tod at her back, toward a future unknown. What a delicate balance that couldn't be bettered, and it remains difficult to watch to this day without tearing up. Robert Reed, just as in THE BRADY BUNCH, is a warm and loving father, and this film, along with ROOTS, reignited his career back toward drama. Diana Hyland will always be remembered as John Travolta's first true love, tragically dead of cancer less than five months after this broadcast. The natural smile, fresh wholesomeness (even in a revealing bikini), a sweet girl next door quality that every boy fell in love with- the 19 year old Glynnis O'Connor was a huge cult figure at the time, on a par with Maureen McCormick, Jodie Foster, Tatum O'Neal, or Kristy McNichol, but appears to be criminally forgotten nowadays; she would continue to score impressively in films such as "California Dreaming" and "Those Lips, Those Eyes." Only months away from "Saturday Night Fever," John Travolta's movie career consisted of a bit in "The Devil's Rain" and a supporting villain in the just completed "Carrie," his dramatic capabilities as yet untested, so this sensitive but not saccharine portrayal was very real and precise (how about the reference to masturbation with fellow inmate John Friedrich, when they easily could have shied away from an honest depiction). This movie's cult should continue to grow, in spite of the dated 70s fashions, despite the raspberries from numerous hipsters, simply because the heart never stops yearning and no one forgets their first love.