STICKY FINGERS
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1988 Jeff Meyer
STICKY FINGERS (United States, 1988) Director: Catlin Adams Screenwriters: Catlin Adams, Melanie Mayron Cast: Helen Slater, Melanie Mayron, Danitra Vance, Eilleen Brennan, Carol Kane, Christopher Guest, Stephen McHattie
Well, what can I say? These two musicians (Slater and Mayron [the latter also co-wrote the film]) are living hand-to-mouth in New York as park performers, going through various romantic tribulations (McHattie and Guest) and avoiding their landlord (Brennan). A drug-dealing friend asks the pair to keep an eye on a bag while she's out of town. Of course, they decide to open it and find that it's full of money. $900,000 worth. Of course, they initially want nothing to do with it, but....look, do I have to draw you a picture?
Mayron and Catlin Adams showed up after the showing, and everyone was very polite, which is never a good sign. They said they had wanted to do a "Laurel and Hardy" type film; at times, I thought it was a Lucy and Ethel comedy, as Slater and Mayron tend to look at each other and go "WAAAAHH!" throughout the picture. Sorry, but give me SONS OF THE DESERT any time.
There are a couple of performances that do stay above water -- you'd expect it with such a good cast. There is something about Carol Kane that makes me grin idiotically whenever she's on; here, she plays here a ditzy Southern woman bit as Brennan's sister, in New York to help Brennan recuperate from broken legs. Her romantic dalliance with the parking lot attendant next door is really good. Danitra Vance, one of the best Ebersol-produced SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE performers of the early 80s, does a nice job as the girls' rational musician friend. And Mayron, who is a favorite of mine on the TV program THIRTY-SOMETHING, is appealing in her quiet moments; it's a pity she didn't bring the writers from the show onto this project. Christopher Guest, one of the best comic performers of the last decade, isn't given anything to be use, and ends up being rather dull.
SUMMARY: Slapstick and shopping humor, all having the general humorous composition of soggy cardboard. There's better things out there, gang...
LINER NOTES: Sorry these are taking so long to get out -- STICKY FINGERS was shown a week ago, and is already out in the theaters. I'm just now catching up with the reviews. Observations so far: seen quite a few films, though I avoided IT'S ALIVE III on the basis of the lateness of the hour, IGUANA because the showing at the Secret Festival (which I can't tell you about, sorry) was so disturbing that I went home and read for the rest of the day, and A KILLING AFFAIR on the recommendation of Peter Reiher. Good films so far, and one GREAT film: DOMINICK AND EUGENE, which is out in theaters already.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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