Hey folks, Harry here with a look from the amazing Max California upon a very odd cast of characters in a comedy coming near you next year from the director of... ROMY AND MICHELLE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION... David Mirken. Right now the film is targeted for our screens on April 6, 2000... the same day as Takeshi Kitano's BROTHER (ahem see it!!!), Eddie Murphy's PLUTO NASH and JOSIE AND THE PUSSY CATS.... so... you be the judge. .
Harry-
Caught a test screening in Westlake of a movie called Breakers, if you want to use this. Its a comedy with Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Gene Hackman, Jason Lee and Ray Liotta. (Pretty eclectic cast, eh?) This was a workprint, although it looked pretty finished to me. There was temp music in there (that damn American beauty three xylophone notes again) and the runtime was about two hours; it'll probably be R-rated too. I'll put some SPOILERS in here, but probably nothing that the trailer won't tell you.
Sigourney and "Love" (as she likes to be called I guess), play a mother-daughter con team, and at the start we see one of their typical scams. Sigourney marries Ray Liotta, a semi-mobster, and the very next day Love, as Liotta's secretary, jumps all over him, and Sigourney bursts in to catch them in the act. Cue instant divorce settlement...this is how they make a living. We also see them scamming free meals by putting glass into their food in restaurants, and getting a free hotel room by pretending to trip over in the lobby, etc.
After a run-in with the IRS, the duo realize they need to set their sights higher to pay off their back taxes, so they target a Palm Beach billionaire (Gene Hackman) as their next payday; Sigourney poses as a Russian countess to snag him. While setting up this scam, Love encounters a local bartender played by Jason Lee, and she sets about scamming him on the side, but of course there's an attraction there. Eventually Liotta shows up looking to reunite with Sigourney, and the usual wackiness ensues. And that's basically the story. If you're thinking this looks like a female version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, you're not wrong.
It's actually a pretty funny movie. A lot of the comedy comes from Hackman's character, who is a dirty old man constantly breathing smoke everywhere, with yellow teeth, liver spots and really bad fashion sense. Jason Lee is also hilarious, he gets most of the good lines, well-suited to his deadpan style.You can tell that Sigourney and Ray Liotta aren't really natural comedians though; I'm not saying that they're bad here, but sometimes their delivery was a bit forced. Liotta's character changes gear somewhat in the last third, and he suddenly becomes a lot funnier, as his mobster persona clashes with everyone else he meets. Love isn't bad either, the part does require a little bit of acting, and she does nicely. Male followers take note - most of Love's scams involve her wearing incredibly tight revealing outfits. (Nope, no nude scene, before you ask!) Oh yeah and Jeffrey Jones also shows up briefly as a hotel manager, but he has all of two scenes.
Everyone in the crowd seemed to dig it, I think because the comedy covers all the bases...there are some peurile gags (such as a nude statue which keeps losing its penis...at one point ending up in Hackman's mouth) but there are some great smart one-liners and situations too. And who doesn't want to hear Love say "OK mom, one penis coming right up"?
But on the negative tip, I will say that there are some mother-daughter "bonding" moments that seem a bit forced, almost like they were put into the script as an afterthought, and the ending was predictably neat and happily-ever-after. There were no really awful scenes that stood out though.
As whole, it turned out to be better than I expected, its just a cute piece of forgettable fluff.
Max California
