THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS (1999) (Paramount) Starring: Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, John Cleese, Mark McKinney. Screenplay: Marc Lawrence, based on the original screenplay by Neil Simon. Producers: Robert Evans, Robert W. Cort, David Madden and Teri Schwartz. Director: Sam Weisman. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, adult themes, sexual situations, drug use) Running Time: 88 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS is the sort of film I generally greet with a generous helping of pooh-poohing. It's a remake (of a Neil Simon-penned 1970 original which I have never seen), it's a vehicle to re-unite two stars of a previous film (Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, from 1992's HOUSESITTER), and it's a broad farce cloaked in shallow sentimentality. THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS often feels like it's working awfully hard to extract its guffaws, yet it still manages to extract its fair share. The comic energy of the three lead performers -- including the incomparable John Cleese -- makes this silly trifle something moderately satisfying.
Martin and Hawn star as Henry and Nancy Clark, a Columbus, Ohio couple facing a very empty nest. With their youngest son finally moved away, the Clarks are left alone to wonder whether there's any spark left in their lives together. A spark-igniter emerges unexpectedly when Henry -- laid off from his advertising job but afraid to tell Nancy -- heads to New York for a job interview with Nancy as a last-minute companion. One re-routed plane, mugging and eviction from a hotel by an officious manager (Cleese) later, the Clarks find themselves hungry, homeless and stranded in the Big Apple, sharing their grandest adventure ever.
It shouldn't be a surprise that THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS feels derivative, and not just because it's a remake. Nearly every element in the film is designed to have the comfort of the familiar, from the pairing of the two stars, to Martin's fuming in a PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES scenario, to Hawn's earnest ditziness, to Cleese's resurrection of Basil Fawlty and Python-esque cross-dressing. While the script by Marc Lawrence (writer of FORCES OF NATURE, who appears unusually fond of thwarted travel plans as an aphrodisiac) pauses occasionally so Henry and Nancy can muse about the nature of their marriage, it's mostly concerned with set-ups for slapstick situations and tirades.
At times, those situations and tirades feel forced; you can practically see Hawn and Martin screaming to the audience for whoops and applause when they go on their respective rants against someone who gets their goat. At plenty of others, the actors give the old-fashioned farce a kick it rarely gets on screen. Martin and Hawn share one classic hide-in-the-bedroom scene with Kids in the Hall vet Mark McKinney (as a businessman Nancy attempts to seduce for food), and their chemistry even makes the personal moments feel somewhat genuine. Even more wonderful is Cleese, a comic treasure too rarely seen. He may be able to do smiling misanthropes like his character here in his sleep, but he still sends a charge through THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS every moment he's on screen. Cleese's scenes are reason alone for comedy fans to spend an hour and a half with this film.
I do wish THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS had shown more restraint with its characters, subjecting them to a bit more frustration and a bit less abject humiliation. It's not a subtle film by any stretch of the imagination, but there was enough humor to be found in the performers that we didn't need to see Martin taking a hallucinogenic trip with his pants around his ankles. You may find a lot of THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS familiar and foolish; you may also find yourself laughing at it in spite of yourself. There's something to be said for the way talented professionals can take predictable material and wring something fresh and funny from it.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 city shtickers: 6.
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