BEFORE: Valentine's weekend is over, but I'm locked into the romance theme through the end of the month. I tend to ignore President's Day, it's a largely meaningless holiday - I mean, the guys who got to be U.S. President had things pretty good, all things considered (except for maybe William Henry Harrison, Millard whats-his-name, oh and JFK got shot, for that matter so did Lincoln, McKinley did too). So what the hell, give them their own day, most of them aren't even around to appreciate it any more, but it's just an excuse to sell cars and mattresses, right? We Americans haven't even found a way to turn it into an eating holiday - somebody should get on that right away. In the meantime, Kelly Bishop carries over from "Friends With Kids".
THE PLOT: Gwyn Marcus has just accepted the proposal of her boyfriend Matt, but she has misgivings about their future together as she learns of the various affairs that her family is having.
AFTER: It first seems like this is going to be something along the lines of "My Big Fat Jewish Wedding", which would be fine, don't get me wrong. I'll take Jewish deli food over Greek food any day. But then with the long introspective narratives about the nature of relationships and affairs, intercut with jazz instrumentals, this starts to look like a film that Woody Allen might have made if he ever relocated out of New York in the 1990's. Oh, he eventually went on to make films in London, Rome and Paris, but to my knowledge he never felt strongly about Miami - maybe if his parents had moved down there and he'd visited them, he would have found some stories there.
All of his trademarks are here - family members discussing their affairs with each other, the jazz music, the professional ad writer who wants to write TV scripts instead, and the anecdotal missives about the meaning of it all. OK, the central character is a woman, but he directed a few films like that too. The presence of Mia Farrow as the lead character's mother sort of seals the deal. This was maybe the 2nd film she was in after splitting with Woody, I wonder if making this film gave her a sense of deja vu.
I can't even surmise that it was done as a parody, like "Airplane" was to the "Airport" disaster films, or if it was meant as a pastiche tribute, like the way "High Anxiety" assembled bits from various Hitchcock films. If that's the case, then they didn't take things far enough. (Hmm, that's not a terrible idea, to do a style parody of all Woody Allen's films together.... "Bullets over Broadway Dannie Hall and Her Sisters" or something...)
Anyway, if you take this film at face value, it just makes the same point over and over, which is that marriages are fragile, nearly everyone is miserable or eventually cheats, and then they move on to the next relationship, which they'll probably screw up as well. I'm not saying the film is wrong exactly, but it does exemplify sort of a defeatist attitude. As Woody might say, "Nothing matters, we're all going to end up dying alone. But at least we'll be with someone we love."
Also starring Sarah Jessica Parker (last seen in "New Year's Eve"), Gil Bellows, Antonio Banderas (last seen in "The Legend of Zorro"), Mia Farrow (last seen in "Husbands and Wives"), Paul Mazursky (last seen in "Into the Night"), Kevin Pollak (last seen in "Hostage"), Carla Gugino (last seen in "Snake Eyes"), Jeremy Piven (last heard in "The Pirates! Band of Misfits"), Naomi Campbell, Barbara Garrick, with cameos from Donal Logue (last seen in "Comic Book Villains"), Ben Stein.
RATING: 5 out of 10 Cuban cigars
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