BEFORE: Jenna Fischer carries over from "The 15:17 to Paris" - I didn't really have a ton of options there, I ran out of Tony Hale movies, the Judy Greer films are usually romantic comedies, and I've got nothing with Thomas Lennon in it on my watchlist right now. BUT, this link gets me to another Owen Wilson film, and I've got plenty of those - he factors prominently into my Father's Day chain, which this one (sort of, tangentially) is a part of, based on the synopsis.
THE PLOT: Two childhood best friends, one a superficial womanizer and the other a barely functioning bipolar, embark on a road trip back to their hometown after one of them learns that his estranged father has died.
AFTER: I've already watched a few films this year that have taken a look behind the scenes of television production, like "I Love You, Daddy", "The Ugly Truth", "Late Night" and "Bombshell", then there was "Morning Glory", which showed us just how wacky a weatherman could get on the air. I'm back on that track today, with Owen Wilson playing Steve Dallas, a charming but lazy weatherman on an Annapolis station whose only ambitions are to get high and get laid, with a never-ending set of rehearsed lines that he uses to get women to sleep with him. As they say, the secret to success is sincerity, and once you learn to fake that, you've got it made.
He's also always short on money, trying to get an advance on his salary or borrow a few bucks here and there, come on, you know he's good for it, right? But the truth is that he's funding his best friend from childhood, Ben, who's trying to write a book, and all of Steve's money keeps going toward Ben's rent (to keep him out of Steve's bachelor pad, one assumes) and fueling their drug trips and take-out pizza orders. Hey, who needs ambition when all of your basic needs are being taken care of?
Their routine is shaken up by the news of the death of Ben's father, so they take a road-trip to rural Pennsylvania (?) for the funeral, and that's where we start to get the idea that Ben's not completely sane. He wants to buy all the crawfish being sold as bait at a roadside stand, I guess with the intention of setting them all free, just because he thinks the crayfish have a nervous system almost as advanced as humans, or dolphins. Which sounds like the sort of thing a militant vegetarian would say, but unfortunately Ben never gets around to setting the crawfish free, they all just die in the trunk of the car. Ben happens to be a well-intended vegetarian, but he seems to also have a problem with following through on things.
(I'm not a vegetarian, but I was once married to one. I get some of the underlying principles, but I was raised a certain way, eating meat and I'm not likely to change. I keep some veggie burgers on hand and I try to eat them once a week or so, but I'm not sure that makes an appreciable difference. While I don't feel actively guilty about eating meat, I realize that I'm also complicit in the deaths of a few dozen cows and maybe several hundred chickens. I didn't kill them directly, but my eating habits caused these creatures to be born just to die - I feel bad, but not bad enough to lose sleep over it or change my ways. I could go meatless if I wanted to, or if the pandemic affects the meat supply any more than it already has - I would just prefer not to.)
After the funeral, Ben has a tough time recovering from the loss, so he moves back into his childhood home for a bit, and Steve commutes back from his weatherman gig on the weekends. But when Ben learns that he's inherited the bulk of his father's estate - the house, the farmland, the country store - it not only puts him at odds with his sister, but it gives him the resources to do whatever he wants. He could sell the land and live off that money, or he could keep it and run the farm and store, or give the farm to his friend Steve, who he trusts more than he trusts himself, and would have better ideas for what to do with it. I'm surprised that neither of them at this point thought to turn the place into a marijuana farm, because that sure would have saved them both some money. Perhaps that sort of thing's not welcome in Pennsylvania.
But an opportunity like this also creates an existential crisis for Ben, and he's just not equipped to handle it. For a short time he has a vision of clarity, and decides to not only live on the land, but also turn it into some kind of New Age commune or farming education center where other people can learn to get more in touch with nature. This was not a terrible idea, because so few people know what it takes to live on a farm, and with movements these days toward more sustainable farming and other scientific and earth-friendly ideas, Ben might have been on to something here. But remember, Ben has a terrible record of not following through with things, and with Steve only visiting on the weekends to support his plans, before long he's battling depression, acting out and questioning his own plans.
Steve's just as unsure of himself, because given the idea of owning a farm and having some place to get away from the city, suddenly he's not as interested in the fast-paced world of reporting the weather during the day and hiring escort services at night. And after meeting Ben's step-mother, who was much younger than her husband, he starts to think that maybe he can convince her to stay on with him when he takes over the farm. Meanwhile, Ben's sister is contending the will, or rather Ben's competency, and threatening to ruin everyone's plans to improve their situations.
I wish this film had a little more focus, because it did tend to (much like Ben) move from one idea to another very quickly, kind of unsure if it wanted to make a point about city life vs. country life, or the fragile nature of relationships or friendships, or what it means to deal with the death of one's father. So it ends up being about all of those things, but I think the most poignant issues here concerned questioning one's own career, or maybe I'm just projecting. Right now a lot of people are out of work, looking for work, or preparing to go back to work - meanwhile they've just spent the last 8 or 10 weeks at home with their families, and that means that on some level for many people, there's been a shift of priorities. Some people may have started to work from home and they may not want to go back to working in an office and commuting every day. Others may be teaching their own kids at home, and either hating that, or wondering if they might want to continue doing that. And while some people can't wait for restaurants and movie theaters to re-open, there may be other people who got used to staying home every day, and even when things open up again, may find it difficult to go back to eating and watching movies in public.
It's too bad that National Mental Health month is over, this would have fit right in on that theme. I'm more on the Father's Day track anyway right now, and that would seem to include a film where a character has to deal with his father's passing. But hey, June is also National Outdoors Month, so if you've been cooped up inside because of the pandemic, it's time to get out there! Wearing a mask, of course. June is also National Oceans month, PTSD Awareness month, Caribbean American Heritage Month, LGBTQ Pride Month of course, and African-American Music Apprecation Month. I can work with some of those, I already watched "Love, Simon" for Pride month and "Straight Outta Compton" could tie in with African-American Music Appreciation. Though is rap really music? JK.
Also starring Owen Wilson (last seen in "Breakfast of Champions"), Zach Galifianakis (last heard in "Missing Link"), Amy Poehler (last seen in "Wine Country"), Laura Ramsey (last seen in "Shrink"), Alana de la Garza, Lauren Lapkus (last seen in "Opening Night"), Paul Schulze, Greg Cromer (last seen in "Bad Words"), Joel Gretsch (last seen in "The Emperor's Club"), Edward Herrmann (last seen in "Overboard" (1987)), David Selby, Peter Bogdanovich (last seen in "She's Funny That Way"), Melissa Rauch (last heard in "Ice Age: Collision Course"), Michael Uppendahl, Tom Key.
RATING: 5 out of 10 BBQ ribs at Outback Steakhouse
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