FLIRTING WITH DISASTER
US, and 1996, 92 minutes, Colour.
Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Tea Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin, Richard Jenkins, Josh Brolin, Celia Weston, Glenn Fitzgerald.
Directed by David O.Russell.
Not a propitious title, but this film is offbeat and unpredictable. It is often funny, often silly. But, in a whacky kind of loud American way, it works.
It is a quest: husband and father (Ben Stiller) goes with his wife (Patricia Arquette) and social worker and investigator (Tea Leoni) to criss-cross the US to find his natural parents. His eccentric adoptive parents (Mary Tyler Moore enjoying herself being abrasively caring and George Segal looking hangdog and browbeaten) also get in on the act. So do two FBI agents and an assortment of funny possibility parents. However, they are nothing compared with the ageing hippies who are the real thing, played with zest by Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin. Gas station explosions, gaol, cranky landladies, aerobic twins... this is the picture.
Offbeat and whacky.
1. A comedy of the 1990s? Issues of personal identity, adoption, family? The comedy of errors?
2. Across the US, New York City, San Diego, Minnesota, old hippy families? The musical score?
3. The strength of the cast – and their subsequent successful careers?
4. The tone, the characters, real, eccentric, the situations, real and eccentric?
5. Mel, Ben Stiller’s presence, style, in himself, his relationship with his parents, adoption, Jewish background? Discussions with them, the meals? The need for information, the contact with Tina and the office, the work of the agency? Nancy, the child, support? Tina being invited to the meal with his parents, with Nancy, the warnings?
6. Mel’s mother, Mary Tyler Moore, her carrying on, controlling? Ed, the father, more passive?
7. Nancy, a loving wife, mother, ordinary?
8. Tina, her studies, competence, incompetence, at the dinner, uptight, the past, the divorce, the mistakes? The sexual attraction to Mel and her acting on it?
9. The decision about the trip, excitement, San Diego, the arrival, Valerie, bonding, tender and Mel and the arm wrestling, the smash, the mother forgiving, the buildup to the story, the introduction to the sisters, the discrepancy of dates, the error – and Valerie charging for the damage?
10. Going to the snow, meeting the workers, the mistake, driving the truck and the crash, the police, discussions, reference to the hippy couple?
11. Going to see Richard and Mary, the history, protest, jail, LSD, drugs, the birth of the child, the adoption? Lonnie, his presence in the house, eccentric and bitter? The welcome by the parents, discussions, the meal, Lonnie and the poison in the meal, the effect on Paul, his illness, going to hospital?
12. Tony, knowing Nancy in the past, the attraction, in Minnesota, with Paul, as a couple, Paul and his behaviour, tension, jealousy? The decision to go on the journey with Mel and Nancy? The melodramatics during the travel?
13. Tina, the sexual attraction, the effect on Mel, the effect on Nancy, Tony and his advances, Nancy fending him off?
14. Mel and his parents, their anxiety, the phone call, decision to come, the car, the mistakes, the drugs, the arrest?
15. Everything finally sorted out – and the entertainment of the farce, but the points it was making?
