THE DREAM TEAM
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1989 Jeff Meyer
This is one of those unusual films where every member of the cast and creative team have a high point at one time or another during the film. Unfortunately, their zeniths never peak at the same time, and you're left with a film that is excruciatingly close to being over the thumbs-up line, but which never quite makes it. The story covers a group of four mental patients (Michael Keaton, Peter Boyle, Christopher Lloyd, and Stephen Furst) who are taken on a day trip to New York City by their doctor. Unfortunately the doctor witnesses a murder and is assaulted, and his patients are blamed for the attack. They're left to their own devices, which is the point of the film....
I like the concept of the writer adding a bit of drama to the comedy -- letting the audience see a few of the struggles these people are having to make to deal with "sanity." I just wish it could have done better. Lloyd's reunion with his family comes particularly close, but again, it never crosses the line. As for the rest of the script, the writer has given several of the characters some *very* funny dialogue, but it only comes in spurts, and at the oddest times. And it's unevenly distributed, going mostly to Keaton and (sporadically) to Boyle. Lloyd is left with a character who is supposed to be annoying and funny, and ends up only being annoying.
[Note: to anyone who sees this movie, or has seen it and who has a better memory than me (not much of a feat), could you please drop me a line with the exchange between Peter Boyle's character and Keaton's girlfriend's yuppie room-mate, about the sculpture? *Beautiful* line. Also any good lines Keaton had that you can remember...]
As to the actors, there's some very good work here. Lloyd, as I've said, comes very close to making his unsympathetic character sympathetic, but he just doesn't have the script to do it with. Boyle is OK but has some great lines; Furst is Furst. The fellow who plays their doctor was *excellent* -- one of those small roles where the actor fits the role so perfectly that you keep pointing it out later. Keaton, however, is the star, and he certainly carries things whenever he's given the opportunity. True, he has the best lines, but he always takes them as far as he can. The man has an intensity that makes for a very believable violent psychopath; what you like about him is that he seems to get angry with all the right people. (Which I guess is a definition of his role in BATMAN. I still don't know if he can pull off his role in that film -- I keep wondering if he might have made a better Joker. At any rate, he is the only actor I know of who should be allowed to play Jack Nicholson...)
I can't really recommend THE DREAM TEAM, but I have to give it a B+ for effort. Better luck next times, guys.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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