BEFORE: Well, this is where I wanted to be when I blocked out the year. Mission accomplished, so far anyway. I've still got a ways to go if I want to have another Perfect Year - I think that would be quite ironic, in this most terrible of years, the absolute crap-tacular dumpster fire that is 2020 if I could pull out another year-long continuously linked chain, like I did last year. But I've got all of July to work out a viable chain that will get me to October, it's still too early to think about it now, and then deal with whatever slots are left for November or December. But if I've done the math right, I've got things programmed already up to slot 3,618. I've got about 30 or 31 films put aside for October and a lead-out, that gets me close to 3,650. So, really, just 50 slots left to program, assuming I can find a chain shorter than that to connect July 31 with October 1 (which is 61 days, by my count). I like my chances.
I spoke briefly with my father today, just to wish him a happy holiday - and to let him know I'm coming up to visit next weekend. If I can catch the Acela train on Friday I can be up there by 8:30, maybe a late dinner at my parents' house before I hang out with them for a few days, and I can be back in NYC in time for work on Monday.
Robin Williams carries over from "World's Greatest Dad".
THE PLOT: A woman cons two old boyfriends into searching for her runaway son by convincing both that they are the boy's father.
AFTER: Wow, there's a lot of comic talent here just in the three leads, but I just wish this movie from 1997 had known what to do with it all. Instead the story sort of leads almost nowhere, kind of like the rock band tour seen in the film, it goes from place to place, doesn't stay anywhere very long, moves on to the next town, but thankfully it's over very quickly so you can catch a different band next week. Seriously, how many rock concerts do you really remember, start to finish? Maybe two or three really good ones in your life, if you're lucky. That's why I love live albums, especially if I saw that act perform on that tour, then I don't have to remember the tracks played - I got the live albums from the two McCartney tours I saw (Happy belated 78th birthday to Sir Paul, who has two songs featured in this movie, "Young Boy" and "The World Tonight") and another fave is the "Arch Allies" live album from REO Speedwagon and Styx.
But Sugar Ray? Was that the biggest band of 1997, or was that just a band that was available. Was there anyone who quit their job or dropped out of school to go follow Sugar Ray on tour? I kind of doubt it, though I'll admit I've been wrong before. But that's where the two lead characters here have to go to find the boy they each think is his biological son - out on tour with Sugar Ray. There's no accounting for taste, I guess - but I don't think the filmmakers here had much experience with Sugar Ray's fans, who are depicted here as a bunch of punks, Goths and drug addicts. Jeez, learn to read the room already - that's like showing heavy metal fans at an Uncle Kracker concert, or inner city youths jamming to the Beach Boys.
But hey, 1997 was a crazy time. Pre-9/11, pre-Katrina, pre-pandemic. Back when a woman you slept with could tell you that you fathered a child 17 years ago, and you'd be inclined to just believe her on the spot. Oh, sure, you'd know about blood tests and DNA tests, but who has that kind of time? Especially when the boy in question has run away to follow Sugar Ray on tour. A simpler time perhaps. Heck, I've already seen one film this month about a mother who slept around a lot and may not know the truth about her sons' parentage, so why not another one? But the big question here then becomes - why would she enlist her two ex-boyfriends to hunt the kid down, when the boy's (adoptive?) father is also quite capable of doing so? Look, it's not like she KNEW that her husband was going to have car trouble, and then a horrible accident with a portable toilet, but maybe she was psychic or something?
It just feels like there were problems here in the concept or early scripting stage. If you're writing this story, wouldn't it make more sense to show the husband having his accident first, and then this would necessitate Collette dialing up her old lovers to find her son? I guess maybe this would have tipped the reveal a little too soon, but it could have worked if the Sugar Ray concert were in Los Angeles, then moved on to San Francisco, for her to contact each man in turn, and then they could meet up with each other in much of the same contrived way, and the story would feel a little more honest, I think. But as it stands, the problem of a runaway teen seems like it could have been solved within the current family unit, without enlisting outside help - so the whole plot felt very contrived as a result.
Then there's the constant self-sabotaging that the characters all seem to do, all of which causes further delays in the action, essentially drawing out what should have been a 20-minute story to over 90 minutes. Scott runs away. Scott buys an expensive necklace for his girlfriend. Scott is found, then runs away again. The drug dealers find Scott, then lose him. Jack and Dale have to move on to the next city, and so on. Each concert ends and it's like telling Super Mario that the princess is in another castle at the end of each level. And we're moving on to Reno now, wake me when the tour is over.
Robin Williams plays Dale, a frustrated writer again, as he was yesterday in "World's Greatest Dad", but the film can't really seem to decide if this is who he really is - at various times he claims to be an actor, a photographer, etc. Plus he demonstrates suicidal tendencies, a fear of flying, nervousness, gambling addiction and uncontrollable weeping/laughing, so I couldn't even really tell if his character was supposed to be sane or insane. I'm thinking insane would make more sense, but in a way, that also applies to Robin Williams himself.
Billy Crystal's character, Jack, on the other hand, is supposed to be the straight man here on the buddy comedy road trip, but he's also twice-divorced and afraid to become a father with his third wife, so he's also kind of screwed up. But it turns out that maybe Jack and Dale hanging out with each other is good for both of them, Jack learns to loosen up a bit and Dale gains from having some adult supervision. Gee, it's almost like this is an example of a buddy comedy formula or something.
NITPICK POINT: At the end, Jack (Billy Crystal) claims to be an expert at telling when someone is lying to him. So, umm, where was this ability at the start of the movie? That could have saved everybody a lot of time and hassle.
Also starring Billy Crystal (last seen in "Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind"), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (last seen in "Enough Said"), Nastassja Kinski (last seen in "Town & Country"), Charlie Hofheimer (last seen in "Music of the Heart"), Bruce Greenwood (last seen in "Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House"), Charles Rocket (last seen in "Murder at 1600"), Patti D'Arbanville (last seen in "Morning Glory"), Haylie Johnson, Jared Harris (last seen in "Allied"), Louis Lombardi (last seen in "Jersey Boys"), Dennis Burkley (last seen in "Tin Cup"), Mark McGrath, Ricky Harris (last seen in "Hard Rain"), Paul Herman (last seen in "Once Upon a Time in America"), with cameos from Mel Gibson (last seen in "The Professor and the Madman"), Mary McCormack (last seen in "True Crime"), Jason Reitman, Dana Gould.
RATING: 5 out of 10 slot machines
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