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 w Y Your award-winning student newspaper needs your talents Writing Photography Advertising Hands-on Experience. MASS MEETING TONIGHT, 7:30 Second Floor of Student Publications Building 420 Maynard or call 764-0552 if you can't make it 000". Now the seasons best is at the