BEFORE: Richard Jenkins carries over from "Shall We Dance?" and of course, there's a temptation here to put THREE Richard Jenkins movies in a row - but then the question becomes, is that the right call? The other romance film that I have with him in it is "Dear John", which is on Netflix, but that links to another film that didn't make the cut, and if I can hold off on "Dear John" I think that increases the chances of working in that other film next year - and I'm assuming I'll be doing this again next year, too, it's a safe bet. So maybe I cut R.J. down to two films, and some time in the late fall I'll examine whatever romance films are on my radar and assess my chances of putting something together, even a smaller February chain will suffice (45 films on relationship issues might be just a bit too much). But working in blocks of two tends to increase my chances of stitching something together, I think.
And it's my day off, I've got nothing to do on a Tuesday but have lunch, maybe get a load of laundry in, run the dishwasher and watch the rare DAYTIME movie, which gets me back on track and ahead of the count again. My wife's back at her office today, which she does about once a week, and this gives me time to think of odd jobs around the house, like maybe calling somebody to get the windows fixed or thinking about how long it's been since I've had any kind of medical check-up. These things are sort of moderately important, I suppose. What I really should NOT do is start working out a movie path from Easter to Mother's Day, at least, not until the other things are all done.
Here's the TCM line-up for tomorrow's "31 Days of Oscar" programming - just three weeks until this year's presentation, after all. For March 9:
6:15 am "Gate of Hell" (1954)
8:00 am "Nights of Cabiria" (1957)
10:00 am "Black Orpheus" (1959)
12:00 pm "The Defiant Ones" (1958)
1:45 pm "Mister Roberts" (1955)
4:00 pm "Ben-Hur" (1959)
8:00 pm "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" (1955)
10:00 pm "Sayonara" (1957)
12:45 am "From Here to Eternity" (1953)
3:00 am "Titanic" (1953)
5:00 am "The Sea Around Us" (1952)
Another day spent in the 1950's, which means I've only seen four: "The Defiant Ones", "Mister Roberts", "Ben-Hur" and "From Here to Eternity". I won't watch "Sayonara" because it's racist, with Ricardo Montalban playing a Japanese man - and I won't watch "Titanic" because it's not the James Cameron one. But another 4 out of 11 keeps me in the game, 38 out of 101 keeps me at 37%.
THE PLOT: A grown man caught in the crossfire of his parents' 15-year divorce discovers he was unknowingly part of a study on the effects of divorce on children and is enlisted in a follow-up years later, which wreaks new havoc on his family.
AFTER: When was the last time you saw a comedy that was actually ABOUT something? You know, like one that had a point to make, a point of view to express? That seems like a pretty rare bird, if you know what I mean. What was that one with Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman, "Identity Thief"? Like, imagine that movie but if it genuinely told you how to protect yourself from identity theft. Or if "The Hangover" had some real practical advice about what to do if you drank too much in Las Vegas and couldn't find your missing friend. See what I mean? Most comedies just having people trying to solve absurd problems, and/or they have a lot of slapstick, where people fall down a lot, break stuff or get covered in mud or something. I don't know, maybe "Drillbit Taylor" had some unique ways of dealing with high-school bullies, that's the only thing along these lines that comes to mind.
"A.C.O.D." (not to be confused with "CODA", which is a current Oscar-nominated film about the Children of Deaf Adults, same letters but a different acronym) now comes along and says, "Hey, there's a whole generation of adults now who watched their parents split up when they were kids, and what are those people like as adults, what are their views on relationships?" It stands to reason that they might have a different outlook on life than people raised by happy parents in stable relationships, but honestly, those people are probably in the minority these days, right? Ever since the 1960's era of "free love" came along, we've had blended familys, single-parent families, twice- or thrice-divorced parents, then we had the "Me Generation" in the 1980's, gay marriages came along in the 2000's, not to mention the slackers of Generation X and then the millennials. The days of people getting married and staying married seem long gone, for a whole host of reasons.
You might imagine that a child of divorce might be down on relationships in general - or like Carter here, those people might find it difficult to commit to marriage, because the whole concept just reminds them of their parents fighting, being used as a bargaining chip, having to decide which parent to live with, and so on. Then there are stepmoms and stepdads, half-brothers and half-sisters, and worst of all, having to constantly negotiate peace within the family, and also being protective of his younger brother, who has been shielded all along from the dark side of relationships. So when younger brother Trey wants to get married, it's clear he doesn't have the same perspective on marriage as Carter does, he only sees the upside and Carter thinks he's got his head in the clouds. Carter, meanwhile, has been with his girlfriend for four years and hasn't proposed or even suggested they move in together. So far his girlfriend's OK with this, and they even joke about it, but this may not always be the case.
Carter thinks his brother should elope, because just getting their parents together in the same room for a ceremony or reception seems harder than brokering peace between North and South Korea - the conflict has gone on for so long that you can't get both sides to agree on a meeting time, place, or even what size the negotiations table should be. But Carter tries, he meets with both Mom and Dad and tricks them both into agreeing to behave during the wedding, but it's a fragile peace at best.
He then tracks down his old therapist, only to find out she's not a therapist at all, she was just someone writing a book about the children of divorce, and he was one of her test subjects. The book was successful, though the author changed all the subject's names, he still reads the book to remember what he went through, and he even meets a couple of the book's other cases, now also grown adults, similarly wary of relationships or divorced adults themselves. I have to say, this is a really weird place to look for comedic inspiration, but I guess you can't find any diamonds or precious metals unless you start digging somewhere.
Getting his parents back together has unexpected consequences, though - they're both with other partners now, and haven't met face-to-face in over a decade, but after he invites them both to dinner, they share a couple bottles of wine, they get talking, and before long they're involved again - with each other. Two former spouses, now cheating on their partners with each other - I don't think I've seen that before in a movie, either. But you can kind of understand it happening, there must have still been some attraction there, deep below the surface fighting, or maybe it's just the memories of the past coming back, like going back to your old high school and then thinking you can still play football or remember how to play that trumpet solo in band practice.
Everything kind of falls apart from there - the parents' tryst ruin the meeting with Trey's future in-laws, the whole wedding is in jeopardy, the relationships the parents were in with others kind of fall apart, which is a big problem for Carter's restaurant because his dad's girlfriend is also his landlord, and she was giving him a break on the rent. Carter's own relationship is also in trouble, because he was keeping secret the fact that as a kid he was profiled in that book, and so on. Even when he proposes to his girlfriend, she's suspicious about whether he's doing it for the right reasons - is he just trying to "fix" everything, as efficiently as possible? He also comes dangerously close to having sex with another of the A.C.O.D.'s from the book.
I have to question whether the book's sequel would be as revolutionary as its author claims - I'm guessing that if I sign on to Amazon now and look for books about the effect of divorce on children, after they become adults themselves, probably there are a few dozen books at least written on this subject. But again, I've never seen this explored in a movie, let alone something that has the stones to try to be a romantic comedy at the same time.
And yet somehow this is all quite believable, and relevant and funny, all at once. I've probably seen about a half-dozen comedies about big blended families getting together for a wedding, and having that event be a disaster. "The Wilde Wedding" was one, "The Big Wedding" was another, but "A.C.O.D." is nothing like those, it kind of lives in its own little pocket dimension because it really wants to take the time to show us that every once in a while, your life and everything you've become accustomed to could just go away, and it could be like what happens if you pull out one thread of a sweater, the whole thing's going to unravel. You might think you've got some control over your family members, they may come to you for advice, or see you as the voice of reason, but in the end, they're all going to think for themselves and do what they want to do, and you're just going to have to learn to live with whatever.
And there may be times in your own life where you need to end things, I know I felt that way when I got divorced. At the time I could only think about an animal caught in a trap, that it was going to at least FEEL like I was chewing off my own arm just to get away and have a chance of surviving. And it was that painful, but over time it felt more like an arsonist burning down a building for whatever insurance money he could get, and then running away before the fire department could finish their investigation. After any traumatic event, even those that are self-imposed, the best you can do is move on, move forward, move away and then try to rebuild your life again from scratch. Maybe if you're lucky you only have to do that a couple of times in your whole lifespan, but it does seem like there are people who do that again and again - what impact is that likely to have on them, or their children? You see, it's a question worth asking, I think.
You might see some connections to other films here, like the fact that Richard Jenkins also played Adam Scott's characters father in "Step Brothers" - or that Adam Scott and Amy Poehler were on "Parks & Recreation" together, playing a couple. Here Amy Poehler plays his step-mom, and they make a reference to how "in another world, we might have been friends". But that's all beside the point, what really hits home are the interviews during the credits with (I assume) crew members, many of whom are A.C.O.D.'s themselves. Sure, everybody's story is different, each one is unique but then of course when you hear enough stories then there are patterns of human behavior that can be identified.
Nobody seems to know about this film, though, for some reason - sorry, was there not enough slapstick for audiences to figure out this was a comedy? Most Hollywood comedies are like cheap fast food, this one seems like a satisfying meal in a fancy restaurant, by comparison. Yes, it tastes good but you'll also get some nutrition and maybe even learn something about another country's cuisine at the same time. This movie only grossed about $200,000 at the box office, it's only streaming on a few services, and even when I searched for it on the IMDB, even that web-site thought I was looking for "CODA". What a damn shame.
Also starring Adam Scott (last seen in "Between Two Ferns: The Movie"), Catherine O'Hara (last seen in "Everything Is Copy"), Jane Lynch (ditto), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (last seen in "Birds of Prey"), Clark Duke (last seen in "A Merry Friggin' Christmas"), Amy Poehler (last seen in "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny"), Ken Howard (last seen in "In Her Shoes"), Valerie Tian (last seen in "Drillbit Taylor"), Jessica Alba (last seen in "The Killer Inside Me"), Adam Pally (last seen in "The Little Hours"), Sarah Burns (last seen in "Going the Distance"), Jamie Renell, Valerie Payton (last seen in "The Spectacular Now"), Vickie Eng (last seen in "Venom"), Vince Canlas, Mark Oliver, Brian Kurlander, Sarah Vowell (last heard in "Incredibles 2"), Steve Coulter (last seen in "Extraction"), Claire Bronson (last seen in "Harriet"), Michael H. Cole.
RATING: 7 out of 10 tables on the seating chart
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