SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1993 David N. Butterworth/The Summer Pennsylvanian
After suffering through Mel Brooks' latest atrocity, ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS--quite possibly the worst film I've seen In My Entire Life--the idea of stomaching a second supposed "comedy" two nights in a row didn't exactly thrill me to the gills. The ominously awful-sounding SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER was the movie in question.
But oh what a pleasant surprise. Everything, I suppose, is relative.
Not only is the film funny, sometimes side-splittingly so, but it's also very well made, with unexpected moments of real tension and tenderness in and amongst the comedy. For a movie that promises to mix marriage and murder, there isn't a mean moment in this melange. Kudos to director Thomas Schlamme, writer Robbie Fox, and to a stellar comedic cast that includes Mike Myers, Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia, Brenda Fricker, and ... er, Mike Myers.
Set in the heart of San Francisco, SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER tells the story of Charlie Mackenzie, a happenin' bachelor who performs his unique brand of beat poetry in a retro-chic coffeehouse. By "unique" I mean bad. Charlie, it seems, has yet to meet the perfect girl. Afraid of commitment, he's dumped each of his previous girlfriends for less than perfect reasons ("She smelled like soup," for example). Or so he tells his buddy Tony, an underappreciated cop played by Anthony LaPaglia. LaPaglia is cute and cuddly in this movie, and shares some great moments with his police captain boss (an unbilled, amusing cameo by Alan Arkin).
But when Charlie meets Harriet (Nancy Travis), who works at a butcher shop called "Meats of the World," it's love at first sight. He's smitten--"full of smit" as he calls it. The couple share a funny meat montage together, replete with missing limb gags and ALIEN-style chest-bursting humor. However, evidence soon begins to mount that instead of finding Ms. Right, Charlie might well have stumbled upon Mrs. X, whom the tabloids call "The Honeymoon Killer." Mrs. X has the tendency to slice and dice her husbands on their wedding night and Harriet, after all, is quite adept at wielding the necessary paraphernalia. Needless to say all this makes Charlie more than a wee bit paranoid.
Among the film's funniest scenes are those in the Mackenzie household. Brenda Fricker plays Charlie's over-friendly mother May and her flexibility as an actress is astonishing, especially when you compare this character to her dramatic, Oscar-winning role in MY LEFT FOOT. Mike Myers serves double duty in the film, playing Charlie's overly Scottish father, Stuart. If anything, he's funnier as Dad than he is as Charlie, continually yelling at his younger son (whom he calls "Head" on account of the boy's disproportionately large hairdo) with a brogue that's spot on. Wearing heavy makeup and thick-lensed glasses, Myers' Stuart is an armchair-ridden, McKewan's lager guzzling caricature of hysterical proportions. And his bagpipe-backed rendition of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" is almost as funny as the Bay City Rollers music that thunders from the Mackenzie homestead.
With the exception of Arkin's, many of the film's cameos (by the likes of Phil Hartman, Michael Richards, Stephen Wright and Charles Grodin) are distracting, but otherwise the film maintains an even keel. Myers and Travis are silly but likable as the nervous newlyweds, even though Myers obviously finds it harder playing it straight. It's not too much of a challenge figuring out the film's ending, but in "So I Married an Axe Murderer," the accent is more on comedy than mystery, so don't let that fact spoil your enjoyment of an otherwise entertaining film.
From its frothy Cappuccino-Cam(R) opening to its dramatic rooftop conclusion, SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER is a surprisingly fun night at the movies, buoyed along by a smattering of WDRE hits on the soundtrack, picturesque views of the San Francisco Bay area, and consistently droll injections of humor. It's a goofy comedy/thriller with an edge.
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