SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS (Touchstone - 1998) Starring Harrison Ford, Anne Heche, David Schwimmer, Jacqueline Obradors Screenplay by Michael Browning Produced by Ivan Reitman, Wallis Nicita, Roger Birnbaum Directed by Ivan Reitman Running time: 101 minutes
** (out of four stars)
Alternate Rating: C
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
-------------------------------------------------------------
SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS is one of the summer's early disappointments, an utterly pedestrian effort which plays it so safe that the stunt actors wind up taking more risks than the screenplay does. It's an uninspired rehash of the old Bicker-Bicker-Bicker-Smooch formula, and even if the smooch here comes in the form of an homage to the famous FROM HERE TO ETERNITY beach clinch, the film's escapist plot barely contains enough viable material to sustain interest.
Establishing scenes quickly introduce Robin Monroe (Anne Heche), an ambitious young associate magazine editor who's whisked away from Gotham for a romantic South Pacific vacation by her amorous beau Frank Martin (David Schwimmer). After happily accepting a moonlight marriage proposal, Robin is summoned to oversee an emergency one-day photo shoot in nearby Tahiti and commissions laid-back charter pilot Quinn Harris (Harrison Ford) to take her there in his beat-up DeHavilland Beaver.
Miracle of miracles, Robin and Quinn happen upon an unexpectedly vicious storm while en route, and are forced to crash-land the plane on a deserted tropical island after a lightning strike fries the aircraft's electrical system. Stranded with no means of communication to the outside world, the squabbling pair are left to fend for themselves, while back at the hotel, Frank and Quinn's sultry young girlfriend Angelica (Jacqueline Obradors) fret, worry, and make eyes at each other.
An unabashedly formulaic adventure-comedy backdropped by noteworthily lush scenery, the film is written at a TV sitcom-level and features individual scenes which play breezily and make for cute, trailer-ready excerpts, but fail to gel as a whole. Our protagonists aren't confronted by sufficiently challenging or ingenious obstacles in order to pique viewer attention on the adventure front (it's telling that the two inexplicable appearances by pursuant pirates seems almost arbitrary), while the flirty banter zinging back and forth between the duo falls far short of being endearing, registering as cute at best. And the less said about the vapid Frank / Angelica subplot, the better.
Credit the agreeable presence of the film's two leads for salvaging the production to the point of watchability. Mr. Ford and Ms. Heche share an easy, unforced chemistry, and are best as Quinn and Robin inevitably gradate from quarreling antagonists to mutual admiration. Mr. Ford has a pleasant charm about him; it's fun to watch him contort his deadpan face and dryly utter a sarcastic witticism, and Ms. Heche makes for a pleasantly feisty combatant. The star power present easily surpasses the quality of the film's material.
"Aren't you one of those Guy guys?" Robin demands of Quinn as they survey their bleak situation. "You know, one of those guys who they send out in the jungle with a Q-Tip, and come back and build a shopping mall?" And while Quinn rolls his eyes and demurs, it's a given with this sort of film that the hero ultimately does demonstrate some MacGuyver-like aptitude. SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS handles this obligation with a hootworthy plot development in its homestretch -- the discovery of a handy piece of equipment so preposterous in its convenience that it deflates any sense of investment one may have built for the dilemma faced by our heroes. To unfairly drop a hokey pat solution from out of the blue places the entire proceedings in a dubious light.
Michael Browning's screenplay for SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS faithfully abides by genre conventions, vaguely aping conflicts and scenarios from such predecessors as ROMANCING THE STONE and THE AFRICAN QUEEN (also, an early scene which sees Quinn prepping his creaky bucket of bolts and assuring Robin of its flightworthiness interestingly echoes to Han Solo doing likewise in STAR WARS), but for the most part, the snappily suggestive dialogue is forgettable and the strong narrative drive is lacking. To its detriment, it's got all of the shadings of similarly-themed earlier works, but none of the spark.
Director Ivan Reitman does what he can, treating the audience with panoramic tropical visions and keeping the proceedings moving along briskly. It's surprising that such a big-budget Hollywood production features some startling artificial visual effects works, such as that of the storm sequence.
Ultimately, SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS suffers because of its eagerness at palatability, its resolute target of mainstream appeal. Absent of any flair or genuine excitement, the film trods through the conventions of a tired formula with little except the winning performances of its lead actors to garnish much attention. "I want my life to be complicated," confesses Quinn at one point. If only the film shared similar sentiments.
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
--
Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
"Only a twerp would castigate an audience for its enjoyment of something."
- Pauline Kael
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews