ONLY THE LONELY
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1991 Frank Maloney
ONLY THE LONELY is a film from John Hughes (co-producer) and Chris Columbus (co-director). The film stars John Candy, Maureen O'Hara, Ally Sheedy, with Anthony Quinn and James Belushi.
I recently asked in this newsgroup "Does anybody *like* John Candy?" by which I meant does anyone find him a sympathetic screen presence. Some people enjoy laughing at him, some cannot abide him; but I doubted that anyone wanted him as a personal friend. Generally, I do not enjoy Candy's good-hearted jerk; the last film in which I thought he was even moderately successful was PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES with Steve Martin; the scene when the two men wake up in bed together and have to reestablish their heterosexual manliness is both funny and telling.
ONLY THE LONELY offered no such insights into men or women, or even moms. Mom may be a bitch, but only because she loves us. End of insight. And certainly none of comic manicness of THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN.
I went to ONLY THE LONELY to see Maureen O'Hara and anticipated a certain amount of discomfort in the presence of Candy as the price to be paid. As it turned out, it was neither as bad as it might have been, nor as good as it could have been. Even O'Hara, fiery and vicious, suffers from a script that gives her precious little motivation and less history. She's a bigot, an emasculator; but you know she's basically ok underneath. In the Hughes-Columbus world, everyone is basically ok underneath, even Mom. Still, O'Hara shines through the limitations of the script; she's alive when the rest of the movie is dozing.
Candy tones down the Uncle Buck klutziness and becomes the pushover. He decides to assert himself against the wishes of the whole world, but exactly why will remain a mystery, as will the related questions of why now and not before. Candy's acting skills are sufficiently limited that if he's not doing some SCTV fat-jerk shtick he's talking real slow and looking like a whipped puppy to register sensitivity. The result here is some glacial pacing and slippery schmaltz.
Ally Sheedy was supposed to be this major-league introvert, afraid of the sound of her own voice. Not only do we not know why, but we are given no particular reason why she finds herself attracted to Candy or increasingly able to assert herself. At least she's a better actor than Candy and seems to be maturing into someone that may prove to interesting to watch on the screen.
In supporting roles we have James Belushi, totally wasted as Candy's meat-wagon partner. God, I wish the script had done more one joke on the subject of the meat wagon. Or a subplot hinted at of Belushi's relationship with rather alarming wife. And then there is Anthony Quinn, old, totally charming, quite sexy and seductive as he pursues the unobtainable O'Hara, who hates all Greeks (of course, Quinn plays a Greek).
A friend of mine with a taste for sentimental movies loved this one. I did not totally hate ONLY THE LONELY. Instead, I would recommend that this might be a tolerable film to rent in video, but don't pay even matinee prices for it. There's not enough there there.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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