Nominated for four Academy Awards, Lawrence Kasdan's The Accidental Tourist has some remarkable performances from William Hurt, Kathleen Turner and Geena Davis, but it is lacking in energy and never really comes to life. William Hurt plays Macon Leary, a depressed writer of travel guidebooks whose purpose is to steer business travelers to accommodations and restaurants that feel most like home, considering it a triumph to ''locate a meal in London not much different from a meal in Cleveland. Macon has become withdrawn and uncommunicative since the murder of his son Ethan at a fast-food restaurant one year ago and Hurt turns Macon's passivity into an art form, barely raising his voice beyond a whisper throughout the two-hour film.
When Sarah (Kathleen Turner), Macon's wife of many years leaves him, he offers only a scant protest, content to move quietly back to his grandparents' house with his brothers and sister. The siblings, Rose (Amy Wright), Porter (David Ogden Stiers), and Charles (Ed Begley, Jr.) offer little stimulation and amply demonstrate why they are difficult to live. They obsessively alphabetize items in the pantry, play weird card games, and do not answer their telephone. Rose breaks out to marry Macon's publisher Julian (Bill Pullman) but moves back to the family house shortly afterwards because she has to look after "the boys". Macon mopes through each day, resisting any attempt to bring him out of his shell. When he locates a kennel to take care of his overly aggressive dog Edward, he meets Muriel Pritchett (Geena Davis), an eccentric and lonely dog trainer.
Muriel is a single mom who has a somewhat sickly seven-year old named Alexander and immediately zeroes in on Macon as a possible catch. Even though Macon rebuffs her overtures and they seem to have little in common, Muriel doggedly pursues him, trying to light a spark of life in the reclusive writer. Muriel seems to offer Macon a way out, but her abrasive neediness and the prospect of having deal with another child so soon after losing his own propels Macon to run the other way. When his wife Sarah returns seeking reconciliation, Macon must choose to go back to the way it was or take a chance that life could work better with Muriel.
The Accidental Tourist is based on a novel by Anne Tyler and the dialogue is literary but does not have a feeling for the way that people talk. For example, Sarah tells Macon, ''there's something muffled about the way you experience things, it's as if you were trying to slip through life unchanged.'' At the end, there is no transformation, only a turn from no aliveness to a bit more. If life is about making choices, Macon passively lets life make the choices for him and he ends up with the "lesser of two evils" more out of exhaustion than commitment. Geena Davis is deserving of an Oscar for her performance but neither her talents nor the considerable talents of Hurt and Turner could make me believe that by the end of the film any of the characters have moved one step closer to happiness.
When Sarah (Kathleen Turner), Macon's wife of many years leaves him, he offers only a scant protest, content to move quietly back to his grandparents' house with his brothers and sister. The siblings, Rose (Amy Wright), Porter (David Ogden Stiers), and Charles (Ed Begley, Jr.) offer little stimulation and amply demonstrate why they are difficult to live. They obsessively alphabetize items in the pantry, play weird card games, and do not answer their telephone. Rose breaks out to marry Macon's publisher Julian (Bill Pullman) but moves back to the family house shortly afterwards because she has to look after "the boys". Macon mopes through each day, resisting any attempt to bring him out of his shell. When he locates a kennel to take care of his overly aggressive dog Edward, he meets Muriel Pritchett (Geena Davis), an eccentric and lonely dog trainer.
Muriel is a single mom who has a somewhat sickly seven-year old named Alexander and immediately zeroes in on Macon as a possible catch. Even though Macon rebuffs her overtures and they seem to have little in common, Muriel doggedly pursues him, trying to light a spark of life in the reclusive writer. Muriel seems to offer Macon a way out, but her abrasive neediness and the prospect of having deal with another child so soon after losing his own propels Macon to run the other way. When his wife Sarah returns seeking reconciliation, Macon must choose to go back to the way it was or take a chance that life could work better with Muriel.
The Accidental Tourist is based on a novel by Anne Tyler and the dialogue is literary but does not have a feeling for the way that people talk. For example, Sarah tells Macon, ''there's something muffled about the way you experience things, it's as if you were trying to slip through life unchanged.'' At the end, there is no transformation, only a turn from no aliveness to a bit more. If life is about making choices, Macon passively lets life make the choices for him and he ends up with the "lesser of two evils" more out of exhaustion than commitment. Geena Davis is deserving of an Oscar for her performance but neither her talents nor the considerable talents of Hurt and Turner could make me believe that by the end of the film any of the characters have moved one step closer to happiness.