The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Tony Richardson

Writers:

John Irving (novel)
Tony Richardson (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 March 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

If you experienced "The World According To Garp" and found it witty, delightful and totally unpredictable, then be happily surprised all over again when you join the fun and games that go on at the...Hotel New Hampshire

Plot:

The film talks about a family that weathers all sorts of disasters and keeps going in spite of it all...

Plot Keywords:

Writer | Satire | Blind | Bisexual | Radicalism

Cast

Rob Lowe	...	John Berry
Jodie Foster	...	Frannie Berry
Paul McCrane	...	Frank
Beau Bridges	...	Mr. Win Berry
Lisa Banes	...	Mother
Jennifer Dundas	...	Lilly (as Jennie Dundas)
Seth Green	...	'Egg' Berry
Wally Aspell	...	Hotel Manager
Nastassja Kinski	...	Susie the Bear
Joely Richardson	...	Waitress
Wallace Shawn	...	Freud
Jobst Oriwol	...	German Man (as Jobst Oriwal)
Linda Clark	...	German Woman
Nicholas Podbrey	...	Boy with Rifle
Norris Domingue	...	High School Band Conductor

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

UK | Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Canada:R (Canadian Home Video rating) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | USA:R (Approved No. 27215) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Hudson, Québec, Canada

Company:

Woodfall Film Productions

Trivia:

Early in preproduction, the rock band Queen was asked to record some songs for the movie. They completed at least one song for the soundtrack, "Keep Passing The Open Windows", but the collaboration fell through. The finished film saw no Queen contribution, but that same year their album "The Works" (1984) did feature this song.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the award ceremony scene, numerous Austrian flags are show, but all are the civil/merchant version. As an official government function, the flags would have been the state flag (the government flag.) Unlike the United States, Austria and many other nations have multiple national flags for different purposes (government, civilian/merchant, military, on shore versus afloat, etc.) Austria's state flag bears the national coat of arms in the centre, overlapping into both of the red bars. The vertical version of the state flag has the coat of arms turned 90 degrees and placed within a shield. None of the flags in the scene bore the coat of arms.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Lilly: Life's a fairy tale.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Dawson's Creek: Hotel New Hampshire (#5.8)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Tears On My Pillow

Why all this negativity?

I must say I'm surprised by all the strongly unfavourable reviews. I saw this one back in 1984 when it was first released and I loved it for the very reasons that some people here seem to hate it. It was deliciously weird. Our heroes are in an incestuous relationship, and the movie is uncritical of this. That gets the brain working from the start. Then you discover the other bizarre characters and their relationships and the movie becomes, to me at least, extremely lovable.

Admittedly, Rob Lowe's acting isn't up to much, and that's glaringly obvious here, but it doesn't destroy the film, and there's great work, as usual, from Jodie Foster to compensate.

Basically, this is a light-hearted, feel-good film that I would expect to have mass appeal. To top it off, it achieves this effect without being overly sentimental. That's rare. If you haven't seen it, give it a whirl. If you don't like it, keep on passing open windows.