DOC HOLLYWOOD
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1991 Frank Maloney
DOC HOLLYWOOD is a movie directed by Michael Caton-Jones. The screenplay is by Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman, and Daniel Pyne, based on the book "What? ... Dead Again?" by Neil B. Shulman, M.D. It stars Michael J. Fox, Julie Warner, David Odgen Stiers, Woody Harelson, and Bridget Fonda. Rated PG-13, for mature humor and brief nudity.
DOC HOLLYWOOD is being called by the local newspaper critics Southern Exposure; apparently the plot is virtually identical to the current hit TV series "Northern Exposure." You tell me, since I live in a TV-free zone (as I like to mention from time to time), but it does sound remarkably similar. A young, hot doc on his way to major bucks instead gets stranded in a looney-bin hick town. In Fox's case, the town is Grady, S.C., (admirably played by Micanopy, Fla.), a town apparently as TV-free as my own living room. The fantasy nature of DOC HOLLYWOOD is most evident in the lack of TV or radio or newspapers or anything else that might connect the loonies of Grady, "The Squash Capital of the South," "the buckle on the Bible Belt," with the outside world. Once Fox misses the freeway access, he and we are in a Twilight Zone episode, and if you find yourself looking for a pre-cancerous Rod Serling to smoulder out from behind a porch post saying "For your consideration," you are on the correct wavelength.
It's also a little hard to accept Fox as a hotshot, since the only reason we're given to accept his status as a major surgical talent is his show-room perfect 1956 Porsche. On the other hand, Fox is cute, effortlessly funny, energetic, and entertaining. (And I note with some pleasure that neither disease nor accident nor violence is necessary to change this snotty, heartless, little prick into a real mensch -- unlike THE DOCTOR or REGARDING HENRY.)
Other cast members are well chosen. Bridget Fonda is the mayor's daughter, who will do anything to get to L.A.; her performance has a kind of Fifties ambience to it -- sexy, innocent, open, devious -- and I find myself liking her a lot. The mayor is David Ogden Stiers, to whom the years since the end of M*A*S*H have not been particularly kind, but who is still capable of a kind of all-out, pedal-to-the-metal performance. Julie Warner is very attractive; the first we see of her is a skinny dipping scene that is probably more than a trifle gratuitous; it just doesn't make sense dramatically, but as an excuse for showcasing her beautiful breasts and nates I'm sure many of the audience felt it worked. Woody Harelson puts in an interesting performance as the insurance man who wants to sign up Warner for a life policy; he also gets off a major funny at the expense of Ted Danson, his co-star on "Cheers," as I understand it.
The movie also has a couple of amusing cameos: the director plays the maitre d'hotel in a Beverly Hills beanery and the head of the plastic-surgery that Fox wants a job at turns out to be an uncredited and entirely appropriate choice. This is not quite the secret as the ROBIN HOOD cameo, but I can stand not spoiling for you.
Caton-Jones, the director also of MEMPHIS BELLE, seems quite comfortable with his Southern locale, despite his own Scottish nationality. Unfortunately, the scriptwriters were less than original overall. They did manage to come up with a few scenes that really worked, such as the ultra-romantic scene of Fox and Warner dancing at the town squash festival, and the tone of the movie in general light, harmless, and it moves along at a fairly good clip. It's a little too long, a little too predictable, a little unmotivated here and there, but it still manages to provides some entertainment. And right now in the dog days of summer releases, that's a lot.
I recommend DOC HOLLYWOOD to a tolerant viewer who's looking for some late summer entertainment. But pay matinee prices, that's all it's worth, but it is worth that much.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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