FORGET PARIS
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1995 Ben Hoffman
It is springtime and romantic comedies are in the air. By far the best this season is the utterly hilarious FORGET PARIS written by Billy Crystal, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel, among the finest comedy writers. It comes then as no surprise that almost every remark is witty regardless of which of the cast utters it. And what a cast! Director Billy Crystal has assembled a superb group to tell this romantic story about marriage not being quite the same as a honeymoon. In addition, the novelty of the film's presentation is a unique and delightful way to tell a story.
Andy and Liz (Joe Mantegna and Cynthia Stevenson) are in a restaurant at a large table awaiting the arrival of friends who will soon be joining them. Andy and Liz are engaged to be married. To pass the time until the other guests arrive, he tells her the story of Mickey and Ellen (Billy Crystal and Debra Winger). As each couple arrives, Craig and Lucy, (Richard Mazur and Julie Kavner), Lois and Jack (Cathy Moriarty and John Spencer), each adds a bit to the Mickey-Ellen story. What they tell is seen in flashbacks.
Mickey is a top referee in professional basketball. His love life consists of the cheerleaders. When his father dies, a cantankerous man whom no one likes, his body in a casket is shipped to France as that was his last will, to lie alongside his wartime buddies.
Mickey sees the casket put aboard the plane's baggage dept but when he arrives in France, the casket (and Dad) are nowhere to be found. Sad? Not at all. That is how Mickey meets Ellen who is the American VP for the airline in Paris. He falls madly and instantly in love with her and a few days later, proposes. At this point she tells him she is married but "separated." By the way, Dad is finally found and buried.
The film, with every moment funny, tells of their relationship. Does she give up her great job in Paris, get divorced and come to the U.S.? Or should he give up the job he loves as the pro referee and come to France to live? The movie, always maintaining its comedic side, tangles with this and the many other questions that arise. It is a beaut!
In real life, Billy Crystal has been married to the same wife, Janice, for 25 years. They have two children. Crystal has wanted for a long time to make a film about what real marriage is like and he has succeeded brilliantly even if real marriage is not as funny as the film.
Directed by Billy Crystal
3.5 bytes
4 Bytes = Superb 3 Bytes = Too good to be missed. 2 Bytes = So so. 1 Byte = Save your money.
Ben Hoffman
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