SPRING BREAKDOWN
US, 2008, 84 minutes, Colour.
Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, Rachel Dratch, Seth Meyers, Amber Tamblyn, Missi Pyle, Sophie Monk, Jane Lynch, Mae Whitman.
Directed by Ryan Shiraki.
Spring Breakdown is quite a silly movie – but entertainingly so. Enjoyment will depend on audience response to the stars, creditable comedians in their own right. From the spoof title, it is clear that this comedy is a parody of Spring Break films – although they are indulging in their style at various times.
The film opens in the early 90s with the three central characters performing on stage at college. They perform with great enthusiasm a rather staid song – they are fans of Amy Grant. Flushed with achievement, they go to take a bow and the whole audience is gob-smackedly silent. They are the college ‘dorks’ or whatever the phrase for female nerds was at that particular period.
Move on 15 years. They don’t seem to have improved much. They meet together, talk about what they have achieved, make special pizzas. Amy Poehler talks about going to a graduation ceremony. It is for dogs and their owners – including one blind man who responds very well to her and whom she invites to an Amy Grant concert, but when he feels her face he gives up. He is played by Amy Poehler’s then-husband, Will Arnett, with whom she performed in various films and television programs. Rachel Dratch, the most geeky of the three, Judi, is in a relationship with a man whom everybody can see is very openly gay and catches him with the pool attendant. As regards interesting jobs, Parker Posey’s Becky, she has the best, she is on the staff of a Texas Senator, doing many office management jobs.
A great benefit of this film is the presence of Jane Lynch as the Senator, very much the Texan, very much out loud, with a gun, insulting people, and possibly the next vice president of the United States. The other guest performer in the film is Missi Pyle as the proprietor of a fairly rundown hotel in the Spring Break resort, full of zest, into every activity, even joining the rather conservative group for their final performance.
What will the three do for their vacation? Becky is asked to go down to the resort to keep an eye on the Senator’s daughter, played by Amber Tamblyn, very much in the vein of what the three were like back in the early 90s. However, she has lost her boyfriend to the glamorous student and is just determined to kick over the traces. But, if she does and is publicised, she undermines the chances of her mother’s promotion. She goes around with two rather reserved friends, one of whom is played by Mae Whitman.
Off the three go, and they immediately get caught up in the atmosphere of the Spring Break which looks like any of those others Spring Break movies with students in swimming gear and bikinis, while drinking, dancing - extroverts en masse - and wet T-shirt competitions…
Amy Poehler pals up with a glamorous group – who are ignorant but very religious in their manners – and she becomes their coach for the dancing competition, and drinks a lot. Rachel Dratch is tricked into drinking more than one shot and that is the end of her as regards sobriety, getting caught up with the young people, finding herself in bed with a tall handsome young man who wakes up beside her, bewildered. Parker Posey keeps to herself but has to intervene to save the Senator’s daughter, only to get caught up in female salsa wrestling, all kinds of photographs, and having to face the music when the Senator turns up.
They all join in a final performance for the competition, joined by Amber Tamblyn and her friends as well as Missi Pyle. Once again, the audience and the judges watch in complete silence and bewilderment. However, they start, cry against men – and everybody cheers them on.
Who knows what will become of them after the film ends! Quite amusing while on screen.
