BEFORE: Tonight, more struggles on the rocky road to love. (mmm...Rocky Road...) Linking comes courtesy of Clifton Collins, a character actor who's come to my attention lately - he had a small uncredited role as one of the Vegan Police in "Scott Pilgrim", and he was also in "Extract" with Ben Affleck (last seen in "The Town"), who stars tonight.
TCM is spending another day in the Atlantic Ocean, with "Action in the North Atlantic", "The Cruel Sea" and "The Spirit of St. Louis" (that last one is on the list) before moving to Germany for "Judgment at Nuremberg", "Grand Hotel" and "All Quiet on the Western Front" (which is also on the list). So, no takers today, but HBO just added "Rio" to the On Demand, so I'll probably pick that one up this morning.
THE PLOT: A soon-to-be-married man encounters an exciting stranger after his plane suffers an accident on takeoff.
AFTER: Ugh, this one couldn't have been more obvious and contrived. The screenplay probably started with the beginning and the ending, and then all the stuff in the middle was added just to delay, delay, delay. If you enjoy airport closures, car accidents and train re-routings, this is the film for you. Yes, all that worked to great comic effect in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", but there's nothing remotely humorous here.
The premise is that a man (Affleck) is traveling from NYC to his wedding in Savannah, Georgia - but after some terrible traveling luck, and the presence of a wild female traveling companion, he starts to question whether he should go through with the wedding. His insecurity and doubt is reflected in his seeming inability to overcome various travel obstacles. (most of which should be easily solved by saying "Here's my credit card, get me to Savannah", but nothing is that easy)
OK, if you're thrown together with a free-spirited member of the opposite sex, you've got some choices to make. But try and separate the marriage choice from the choice of momentary temptation - or else things are bound to get muddled. At least here, unlike with "Scott Pilgrim", we can understand WHY the central character is attracted to one woman over the other. The free spirit may have relationship troubles of her own, and seems to be a magnet for disaster, but at least she's FUN. All the fiancee does is sit around in her wedding dress, drinking, and wondering when the groom's going to show up. She seems like a real downer.
Unfortunately, the film seems to have just as much trouble as Ben does, deciding what constitutes the perfect mate. And none of the foil characters are much help - all of the married ones aren't happy, and all of the happy ones aren't married.
It's tempting to attach meanings to disasters such as hurricanes, especially when they're used in films as cheap, lazy metaphors for turmoil and conflict. Sure, you can show two people standing in the middle of a storm, and we can get that their lives are unbalanced - but as a screenwriter, isn't that taking the easy way out? Wouldn't actually getting inside their heads take a little more heavy lifting?
We have to remember that in the real world, the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. Earthquakes don't seek out evil people to destroy, despite what some ignorant preachers are fond of suggesting. I mean, really, Pat Robertson, that's just low.
Overall, this is some high Hollywood crap, but at least it fits in with my themes.
Also starring Sandra Bullock (last seen in "A Time to Kill"), Maura Tierney (last seen in "Baby Mama"), Steve Zahn (last heard in "Stuart Little 2"), Blythe Danner (last seen in "Futureworld"), Ronny Cox and Richard Schiff.
RATING: 3 out of 10 giant teacups
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