SPEECHLESS
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1995 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Christopher Reeve. Screenplay: Robert King. Director: Ron Underwood.
All right, all right, we get the point: despite all similarities to the best-selling story, SPEECHLESS is *not* based on the romance between 1992 Presidential campaign rivals James Carville and Mary Matalin. In fact, the script was in development well before 1992. Still, the comparisons are inevitable, until one realizes a critical difference. No, it's not that the SPEECHLESS twosome are speech writers, not campaign managers; it's that Carville and Matalin's story is actually interesting. SPEECHLESS is a limp, poorly structured would-be romantic comedy.
SPEECHLESS is set during a New Mexico senatorial campaign, where Kevin Vallick (Michael Keaton) and Julia Mann (Geena Davis) meet and get romantic one night when neither one can sleep. What neither one realizes is that they are on opposite sides of the campaign: Kevin is a sit-com writer brought in to punch up the Republican candidate's speeches, while Julia is the chief speech writer for the Democratic candidate. At first each one believes that the other has an ulterior motive for the relationship, but eventually they let down their guard and become closer. But there are plent of obstacles in the way, including Julia's stud-reporter fiance (Christopher Reeve) and a series of stunts which continue to prove that all's fair in love and politics.
The standard formula for a movie like SPEECHLESS would have the two principles starting out as antagonists and realizing only at the end that they're crazy about each other. Screenwriter Robert King completely subverts expectations by throwing Kevin and Julia into each other's arms in the first fifteen minutes, then developing the antagonism. It's a noble attempt to shake things up, but unfortunately it just doesn't work. Part of the fun of watching sparring in a romantic comedy comes from recognizing the chemistry even before the characters do, but in SPEECHLESS they already know they're attracted to each other, and we're left with waiting for the campaign to end so they'll admit that they love each other already. There is such a herky-jerky feel to the constant bickering and making up that even King's sharp dialogue can't prevent SPEECHLESS from becoming repetitive after about half an hour.
Inconsistency is also the defining characteristic of the performances of Geena Davis and Michael Keaton, and with those performances most of their scenes together. The problems begin with their initial courtship, which does virtually nothing to establish Julia's character and merely establishes that Kevin is a wise-ass. Davis is radiantly beautiful, and Keaton is generally entertaining, but these characters are so plastic that nothing that happens to them seems to matter one bit. In a couple of scenes, like a quiet moment sitting at a fountain, they actually achieve some measure of connection. For the most part, however, they're just actors spouting lines. You keep waiting for a little spark, and it never happens.
Perhaps most disappointing is that King and director Ron Underwood completely waste their premise by removing all the punch from SPEECHLESS's politics. The setting seems perfect for a high- energy battle of the sexes with partisanship thrown into the mix, but that's never the tone that Underwood is going for. He wants a warm, fuzzy romance compatible with Marc Shaiman's flute-and-wind musical score, and the campaign which should have defined the conflict between Kevin and Julia fades into the background. It might as well have been a story about rival grocers, and every single character is about as uninspired as he or she could possibly be.
I was about the only reviewer in the civilized world who seemed to enjoy Robert King's previous screenplay, the Dana Carvey flop CLEAN SLATE, so I had some hopes for SPEECHLESS. But while there is wit in the words, this is a script which was probably much better on paper. On screen, it's still paper thin.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 political campaigns: 4.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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