FORGET PARIS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Billy Crystal is trying to make his
own WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. He stars, directs, co-
writes, and produces a somewhat lackluster tale of
a romantic relationship evolving over four years.
Only occasionally is the film as funny as it wants
to be, and neither Crystal nor Debra Winger are as
appealing as the film counts on them as being.
Rating: 0 (-4 to +4)
Every once in a while a love story comes along about two people that the audience can feel are just made for each other. They have just the right chemistry, like Bacall and Bogart. It can happen any time from even an unlikely pairing. So don't feel too bad if you don't find that chemistry in a film like FORGET PARIS. FORGET PARIS is the forgettable new romantic comedy from the usually reliable writing tram of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (of PARENTHOOD and CITY SLICKERS) who just happened to hit an off film this time. Being released shortly after FRENCH KISS by itself might make this a hard film to remember, but the writing certainly does not help.
Billy Crystal, the star of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, is trying to recapture the success of that film by starring in a similarly themed film. This film could even be a missing chapter from that film. But this time Crystal also produces, directs, and co-writes the screenplay. I am no judge of whether he succeeded in capturing the style of the earlier romantic comedy since neither film did a whole lot for me. Here the story of Mickey (Billy Crystal) and Ellen (Debra Winger) is told in flashbacks to the very impressionable Liz (Cynthia Stevenson), the fiancee of Mickey's friend Andy (Joseph Mantegna). Her reactions to this rather dull love story are way over the top. She provides roughly the same function that canned laughter provides to a bad TV sitcom.
The story covers something like four years in the relationship of a couple including some hard times. One would expect a little bit of aging, but the only real difference we see in Mickey and Ellen is that there is a lot less chemistry between them at the end than there was at the beginning. The relationship undergoes a number of predictable strains including secrets from their past lives, irritation family members, jobs that are incompatible, jobs that put the characters under stress to make life-style changes, and each person just plain not liking the other's life-style. Each situation is played for comic effect and none is as endearing as the character Liz seems to think it is.
To pad out the romantic humor the filmmakers have thrown in some sports humor. Mickey, it seems, is a basketball referee for the NBA and one who is none too popular with the fans. This gives Crystal a chance to contrast his height to the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The pairing is not as funny as it is intended and Crystal might do well to study films like DESIGNING WOMAN to see how to integrate sports into a comic film. But some attempts at humor work better than others. A sequence involving a pigeon does pay off with some big audience laughs, but generally the humor is on the level of Mickey telling Ellen that she must not use his razor to shave hair in any part of her body. Crystal assumes the incongruity of the scene and his own basic cuteness will make this a funny scene. Wrong bet. There is nothing very winning about these two people.
This film needs any two of more appealing characters, bigger laughs, or a more sympathetic audience. I rate this a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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