Mazes and Monsters (1982)

Tom Hanks feature film debut was this CBS television movie based on the 1981 Rona Jaffe novel of the same title. Mazes and Monsters was of a species of cautionary tale born from urban legend, public unfamiliarity with the new phenomena of rolling playing games (such as Dungeons & Dragons) and in this case the tragic short life of James Dallas Egbert III. Egbert was a child prodigy who in 1979 as a 16 year old student at the University of Michigan mysteriously disappeared, this was initially attributed to his involvement with the game Dungeons & Dragons, but later came to be seen as the result of severe depression and stress. Egbert was recovered alive in Louisiana about a month after his disappearance, he would take his own life about a year later.

While a character named Jay Jay seemingly based on Egbert appears in the film (played by My Bodyguard star Chris Makepeace) he is not the character around whom the film revolves. That role goes to Hanks, and thankfully so because he is by far the best actor among the D & D (or rather M & M, because of intellectual property rights and libel laws) group with whom he principally associates. A troubled young man Hanks Robbie Wheeling is a recent transfer to the fictional New York area Grant College, who despite getting in trouble at his last school for excessive involvement in the fantasy game, quickly gets back into it at his new campus. Robbie and Jay Jay's group of four is rounded out by art student Daniel (David Wallace) and a girl Kate (Wendy Crewson, Tim Allen's Ex-wife in the Santa Claus movies) with whom Robbie becomes romantically involved.

Robbie eventually spurns Kate however, when he starts hallucinating and hearing voices after the group engages in some LARPing in the forbidden caverns near campus. Robbie decides he most go celibate to concentrate on the purity of his Cleric character, and a short time later up and disappears, leaving behind an elaborate homemade fantasy map. The lead detective on the case (Murray Hamilton, who played the mayor in Jaws), can't figure out what happened to Robbie, but his friends eventually determine that he's gone to New York City and go there to find him. Could the 'Two Towers' on Robbies map possibly in fact be the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center? Of course they are, but I won't spoil the ending.

 Mazes and Monsters is a rather odd film, especially for a TV movie. The central characters are suppose to be college kids, but they don't act much like you'd expect college kids to act. The film takes its subject matter seriously and for the most part really plays it straight, which given the silly nature of a good chunk of the material makes for an interesting tonal dichotomy. Robbie has had a difficult home life and appears to be suffering form some kind of schizophrenia so mental health not D & D should really be where the focus is on this story. The film also has some original songs about love and friendship which felt odd for a prime time TV production, rather then an after school special. The movie is quite watchable and an interesting curiosity of its time, it's not good, but could still be worth seeing. **