ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Wednesday, January 12, 1983
Page 5
Best friends are
not enough
By Joshua Bilmes
BEST Friends should have been one
of the best comedies the world has
ever seen. A glance through the credits
shows that all the elements for that to
happen are present. Norman Jewison is
an undoubtedly talented director. Burt
Reynolds and Goldie Hawn look as if
they should be one of Hollywood's
greatest teams ever.
The supporting cast includes talents
such as Jessica Tandy and Barnard
Hughes. The screenplay is by Valerie
Curtin and Barry Levinson, who did the
screenplay for Inside Moves, an un-
publicized but brilliant film from a few
years back.
While Best Friends is enjoyable, it
falls far short of being the classic it had
every right to be.
The story, which is drawn from the
screenwriters' own experiences, con-
cerns a talented pair of screenwriters
who have been living together for many
years, Richard Babson and Paula Mc-
Cullen (Reynolds and Hawn, respec-
tively.) Their latest project is a film
being produced by a rather coniving
producer (Ron Silver), who, among
other things, concocts an imaginery son
who is always sick or dying whenever
his father has an appointment he would
rather not go td.
Richard starts to pressure Paula into
getting married and making their
relationship a little more official. After
much deliberation, she agrees, and
they decide to visit their parents for a
honeymoon.
Directly after the wedding, they
board the train for Buffalo to see
Paula's parents. The scene on the train
is the Reynolds/Hawn combination at,
its best. They blend together perfectly
as they find out that the bed is too small
for the two to consumate the marriage.
The movie begins to head downhill af-
terwards, however.
When they debark from the train,
things start to get cliched. Richard, .a
native Californian, cannot believe there
is so much snow on the ground. Paula's
parents have what Paula calls "the
Irish martyr snydrome." That seems to
be the characterizations are inter-
changable with a host of other TV and
movie parents. In spite of the
hackneyed qualities, the sequence is
not a total loss. The parents are very
well played by Tandy and Hughes, and
the script does add some embellish-
ment to the stereotypes, which in turn
adds a good deal of realism and a
distinct feeling of deja vu to the
proceedings.
Next, the two head down to Virginia
to visit with Richard's parents played
by Audra Lindley and Keenan Wynn.
This sequence is even worse because
after Richard's being annoyed by
Paula's parents it is easy to predict
what will happen next-namely that
Paula is going to get irritated by
Richard's parents. That is exactly what
happens. Richard's mother snaps pic-
tures of everything. His father has weird
beverages for breakfast. They insist on
throwing a little party to celebrate the
wedding which starts a huge spat.
Richard gives Paula valium to calm
her down, and she uses them like M &
Ms. And in the midst of all this, the
producer flies in from Hollywood to tell
them that he needs a new last scene for
the script by Sunday. At this point, it is
easy to spot the hand swooping down to
write on the wall.
All of the troubles induced by the in-
laws cause Paula and Richard to stop
working with each other on the script.
When they finally do get back to
Hollywood, heavy rains reveal huge
leaks in their dreamhouse's ceiling and
wash Richard's Porsche away, and
they break up. Sunday comes, and the
producer does not have the new last
scene so he gets the two together and
locks them in a room until they finish.
And never in a million years will ya
guess what happens when they get
locked into a room and are forced to
work together.
It is very nice that the two learn how
awful it is to give up their best friend,
but the whole film that leads up to it had
a very contrived air to it, and things
never seem to be as good as they should
be. From the first mention of Paula's
wanting to visit her parents, it is rather
easy to guess what is going to happen,
and the whole business with the script
problems and the producer is a very
remarkable coincidence. Jewison ad-
mits in the film's press kit that the
producer's purpose is to lock Paula and
Richard in a room so they realize that
losing a best friend is worse than get-
ting a divorce. It is a shame that he or
the screen-writers did not realize how
bad a motivation that was for a major
supporting character.
Everything else about the film is a
mixed bag. While the chemistry bet-
ween Reynolds and Hawn does sparkle
in spots, it is not as.good as might be
though. The supporting cast is ex-
cellent, but the roles they play are not.
While the film is nicely photographed
by Jordan Cronenweth, the three hair-
stylists leave Goldie Hawn's hair so you
wish it had not been photographed at
all.
Best Friends is not a bad film, and it
is an enjoyable way to spend an hour or
two, but it is far less enjoyable than it
should be. As a result, it is easy to be
disappointed when you leave.
I
I-
i
ANN ARBR
2 INDIVIDUAL THEATRES
th Av.e ao flb-rty76147m
$1.75 WED SHOWS
BEFORE 6:00 P.M.
ENDS a
ET T HURS
THE EXTA
TERRESTRIAL -
A;
STEVEN
SPIELBERG
FILM (PG)
TUES--5:00, 7:10, 9:20
WED-12:30, 2:40, 5:00, 7:10, 9:20
"A MAGICAL BLEND OF
MYTHOLOGY AND SCIENCE
FICTION"-REX REED
DOLBY STEREO
TUES--4:00, 5:50, 7:50,9:40
WED-12:20, 2:10, 4:00, 5:50, 7:50, 9:40
Will Goldie and Burt remain best friends?
Records
Rank and File - 'Sundown'
(Slash)
ATTN: Read with a lone star accent!
Country and Western music is not
necessarily represented by balding or
poorly coiffed limo drivin, donut eatin,
grayin olden golden men who can't
sing, so turn to the country. So much of
the popular C&W today is the safe pop
of yesterday wearing snakeskin
booties.
However, tater holes and Billy
Sherril aside, an occasional rootin
tootin non drek exercise wanders into
town. Line up for Rank and File, a four
piece from Austin, who easily could fit
in around the campfire, coyotes a
howlin' and the Java a boilin'. This is a
country record cleverly and Clouseau-
ly disguised as traditional rock and roll.
The tempo and beat are stright Opry,
but thump rather than drip like those.
Opry drips drip.
I guess the best thing about this
record is the vocals ( ) drawled by
Tony Kinman. This dude moans, howls,
and generally sounds like Sheriff Will
tellin Black Bart to get the hell out of
Dodge, and even then blowing the
motherfucker away down south in
dixie, with a Colt 45 in one hand and a
liquid Colt 45 in the other.
The next best thing about this record
is the interplay between the strummin
and the pickin, the chunky martiallike
beat, the lonesome sob of a sobbin
lonesome harmonica.
The lyrics are also a far cry from
"my daddy died a workin in a coal mine
when gramps put a pickaxe through his
scrotum" :
We went downtown to hear the
reggae sound
The third world beat with lyrics so
profound
The words were neat and what a
beat
Icouldn't wipe the White right off
of my feet
Tense. Tension made this album,
nothin particularly playful about it.
Yeah, the production is a bit tire like:
spare but flat, but live, these guys must
spurt like a Gatling gun. Well poke me
with Fred the cactus, this is country
and western music, "and the cry comes
forth Coyo-coyo!"
-C. E. Krell
ISSUES ON CAMPUS
THURSDAYS 7:30-9:00 pm
January 13-RACISM
Speakers; Archie Andrews-Special Projects
Director, U of M Housing. Leslie Thornton-U of M
Doctoral Student
January 20-SUICIDE
Speaker: Evie Gouthier-Psychologist, U of M
Counseling Services
January 27-MILITARY RESEARCH & U of M
Speakers: Don Coleman-Campus Minister,
George Gamota-Director, Institute of Science
and Technology
February 3-U OF M &-SOUTHERN AFRICA
Speaker: Len Suransky-Faculty Coordinator, U
of M Committee on Southern Africa
February 10-THE FUTURE OF WORK
Speaker: Frithjof Bergmann-U of M Professor
of Philosophy
CAMPUS
1236 Washtenaw Court
(one block north of South University
and Forest; one block south of CCRB)
STARTS WEDNESDAY
JANUARY 12
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