DAYTRIPPERS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
One day Eliza D'Amico (Hope Davis) accidentally finds a love note, presumably to her husband Louis (Stanley Tucci). After quoting a pre-Shakespearean poet named Andrew Marvell ("Therefore the love which us doth bind"), the letter ends, "Love forever, Sandy."
Eliza doesn't know anyone named Sandy. "Maybe he's desperately in love," bemoans Eliza about her husband. "Don't be ridiculous," advises Eliza's mother. "Nobody is desperately in love." After discussing the letter more with her family, they all leave in the old family station wagon to confront Louis at his book publishing office in Manhattan. The show is a comedic mystery as the daytrippers follow the clues around town in an attempt to find Louis and see if he is having an affair. And yes, stick around because there will be a surprise.
In the car on the day trip are Eliza's working class parents Rita and Jim Malone, her sister Jo, and Jo's boyfriend Carl. The domineering mother is played by Anne Meara, the hen-pecked father by Pat McNamara, the independent sister by Parker Posey, and the pseudo-intellectual boyfriend by Liev Schreiber. The other major member of the ensemble cast is Campbell Scott as the author Eddie.
Written and directed by Greg Mottola, DAYTRIPPERS's tone from the beginning is dark, quiet and aloof. Mottola's script is much better than his directing. There are many thought provoking little lines, with most of them coming from Carl, the story's philosopher. (On Architecture: "The Europeans may have been imperialists, but they know how to make a building.") Carl explains that his upcoming novel is an "allegory about spiritual survival in the contemporary world." Carl ridicules the crassness of modern society in general and the middle-class in particular. He would replace our failed democracy with an aristocracy. Carl and all the characters in the film deliver their lines antiseptically. The director seems to be trying to shut the audience out rather than drawing them it into the story.
The show bubbles over with oddities right down to a Maurice Chevalier barometer. Eventually, the daytrippers' journey will take them to a book party honoring Amy Corinne Fairbright-Lebow (Amy Stiller), where Amy will deliver one of the film's typically convoluted lines. "I feel it odd to be experiencing such a feeling of joy over a book about spiritual asphyxiation," she confesses.
After an hour and a quarter of dead pan humor that only works in fits and spurts, the film finally comes alive in the last ten minutes. The change is so dramatic that you will swear you can hear the actors' shells breaking. If only the rest of the film had been this genuine.
DAYTRIPPERS runs 1:27. It is rated R for some profanity and sexual references. The film would be fine for teenagers. Not a bad movie, but the story is too thin to be able to recommend it to you. I'll give it **.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: March 27, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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