Accidental Tourist (1988)
So, for starters, Geena Davis won a best supporting actress for this role. She is a surprising presence, but she is only a shadow, to me, of William Hurt's deceptively taut and perceptive role. Weakest of the three main actors is Kathleen Turner, who is brought far down from the energy she had, say, in "Peggy Sue Got Married" just two years earlier. This might be because Davis is lifted so high.
The story is by Anne Tyler, who won awards and praise for her novel, as literature, before the movie. The hook implied by the title is just the starting point. Even though "Accidental Tourist" deals with totally, very, beautifully serious things, there is a kind of gleam to it all, a knowing despondency, as if the writer knew what tricks to use to make us feel deep things. And it's sort of okay, even at the end, which is improbable the way it is played out, but is emotionally really satisfying.
I liked the movie a lot, for sure. It's about feelings and real people, without crime and violence, and I like all that. But maybe the Oscar might have gone to William Hurt, who pulls off a subtle role with absolutism. He nails the detached, patient, observant, fearful person that his character is. Geena Davis with all her idiosyncratic energy, and later with her more mainstream domesticity (the two are never resolved), is a perfect spark for his smolder.
And it pulls together, most of the time, but there are oddities that are meant to be quaint and fun that throw it off course. The agent is awkward, the Leary family is like a comic idea that just makes the depth of the principles odd for their seriousness. And the sudden attempt at reconciliation seems improbable, at least with the knee-jerk way it comes off. The music is oddly repetitive and annoying if you notice it, too.
One element, of course, that infects how you look at all this, is the role of the two children, the two sons. They make everything the adults do significant, even if still sometimes questionable. But hey, it's actually a soap opera, which I love, with emotions flying this way and that, and echoes of our own lives everywhere. So dive in and give it all a go. Even it feels slow at times, give it a moment. Hurt, who isn't always on target in other films, is really perfectly cast here, and he makes it work.
So, for starters, Geena Davis won a best supporting actress for this role. She is a surprising presence, but she is only a shadow, to me, of William Hurt's deceptively taut and perceptive role. Weakest of the three main actors is Kathleen Turner, who is brought far down from the energy she had, say, in "Peggy Sue Got Married" just two years earlier. This might be because Davis is lifted so high.
The story is by Anne Tyler, who won awards and praise for her novel, as literature, before the movie. The hook implied by the title is just the starting point. Even though "Accidental Tourist" deals with totally, very, beautifully serious things, there is a kind of gleam to it all, a knowing despondency, as if the writer knew what tricks to use to make us feel deep things. And it's sort of okay, even at the end, which is improbable the way it is played out, but is emotionally really satisfying.
I liked the movie a lot, for sure. It's about feelings and real people, without crime and violence, and I like all that. But maybe the Oscar might have gone to William Hurt, who pulls off a subtle role with absolutism. He nails the detached, patient, observant, fearful person that his character is. Geena Davis with all her idiosyncratic energy, and later with her more mainstream domesticity (the two are never resolved), is a perfect spark for his smolder.
And it pulls together, most of the time, but there are oddities that are meant to be quaint and fun that throw it off course. The agent is awkward, the Leary family is like a comic idea that just makes the depth of the principles odd for their seriousness. And the sudden attempt at reconciliation seems improbable, at least with the knee-jerk way it comes off. The music is oddly repetitive and annoying if you notice it, too.
One element, of course, that infects how you look at all this, is the role of the two children, the two sons. They make everything the adults do significant, even if still sometimes questionable. But hey, it's actually a soap opera, which I love, with emotions flying this way and that, and echoes of our own lives everywhere. So dive in and give it all a go. Even it feels slow at times, give it a moment. Hurt, who isn't always on target in other films, is really perfectly cast here, and he makes it work.