RAISING ARIZONA
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1987 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A frantic and funny comedy about an
ex-con who steals a baby to have instead of the one his wife
cannot have. The BLOOD SIMPLE Coen brothers have made a
second great film. It's a screwball comedy filled with
screwball characters.
The Coen brothers have made another movie. Two years ago the then 29- year-old director Joel and the then 26-year-old producer Ethan made a superb story of murder and misunderstanding. BLOOD SIMPLE was a great first film and all the more amazing for having come from two unknowns. Joel had been editor on some low-budget horror films, the best known of which was THE EVIL DEAD; Ethan had no film experience. BLOOD SIMPLE was a great film and an outstanding critical success. More recently the Coens had to prove that they had more than just one film in them. Well, RAISING ARIZONA proves that and while it seems less ambitious to make one more comedy in a market full of comedies, RAISING ARIZONA is as unique in its own way as BLOOD SIMPLE was.
Nicholas Cage plays H.I., an ex-con who went through jail terms as often as you go through tubes of toothpaste. Then he married Edwina, an ex-cop who wants to settle down with him and raise a family. One problem. No kids. And as a cigar-chomping doctor gaily explains, there aren't gonna be none, neither. Things look pretty bad until Edwina hears about a furniture chain (Trey Wilson who played in FX and as the base commander in A SOLDIER'S STORY). owner whose wife just had quintuplets. Now, if some folks don't got enough kids and others got too many, the answer is obvious. If H.I.'s so used to stealing.... Well, you get the idea. And what the Coens give us a bringing-up-baby sort of comedy done in a manic Joe-Bob- Briggs style.
I think while he was making this film, the cameraman must have lived on black coffee and motion-sickness pills. In fact, the same might be true of most of the major actors. The Coens have a way of telling a story that is fast and staccato. The camera moves in fast, jerky motions, making the viewer feel as manic as the characters.
The film grinds up biker movies, the prison system, other people's kids, the parents of other people's kids, and just about anything else that gets in its path. The film is fast and it's funny. And it's not like most of the other comedies out there. Rate this one a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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