THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Slow and bland story casts real
brothers as character brothers in a slow, deliberately paced
film about a piano-bar act. Pleasant but not really
engaging. Rating: +1.
I don't know--what you can say about a quart of vanilla ice cream? THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS is the story of two brothers, Jack Baker (played by Jeff Bridges) and his brother Frank (played by his brother Beau). For 31 years they have played piano together and by now they have become an institution on the cocktail bar circuit. This is a film about the highs and lows of the cocktail piano game., where the highs don't get very high and the lows are only a little bit bluesy, and the men are laid back as all get out. As we meet our intrepid heroes they are just sort of getting along but they could be doing better. Brother Frank decides that the group could use a female vocalist so they audition and end up with sultry Suzie Diamond (played and actually sung by Michelle Pfeiffer). With Suzie's singing they start doing okay. They get some better bookings. On the horizon is a little low-key romance and a little low-key conflict.
Steven Kloves, who wrote and directed, does have have considerable feel for his characters and his occasional comedy, light like almost everything else in this film, does work well some of the time. A case in point is a scene with Jack and Suzie, sharing a suite of rooms in a posh hotel, checking out each other's toiletries. Also neatly handled is a telethon the brothers sign to play at Frank's insistence, only to find it is a high school production to earn money for a gymnasium.
This is a style of filmmaking we have not seen for a while, perhaps since the Forties. The film builds a sort of laid-back piano bar mood and is never anxious to get anywhere. Pfeiffer gets full marks as a steamy torch singer, but when she is not singing she just squeaks by as acceptable. One may speculate that the sibling rivalry of the title characters may reflect some sibling rivalry of the actors, but it is hard to be sure. If the film is watchable, it is mostly for the attraction of the actors. The story itself is as slow and languorous as one of Ms. Pfeiffer's songs. Rate the film a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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