FOOLS RUSH IN 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon
Cast: Matthew Perry, Salma Hayek, Jon Tenney. Screenplay: Katherine Reback. Producer: Doug Draizin. Director: Andy Tennant.
Condoms must have a success rate of about 99.95%. So when a gifted architect (Perry) temporarily moves to Vegas, and meets an out of sorts photographer (Hayek), whilst queuing to use the toilet, sparks fly. Their night of intense passion results in a bundle of joy carrying the same probability of 0.05%. This leaves us with the basic premise of our story - the unwed mother, the confused father, and the unborn child.
"Away in a manger, no crib for a bed...."
Fools rush into thunderstorms carrying golf sticks, and fools also rush into love. The question here is did he marry her because of the baby, or did he marry her because of love? Our Court Jester answer is - 'What's Love got to do with it?' That's right, we're talking about fools aren't we? Sure thing.
The truth of the matter is this movie really shouldn't have happened. What is Matthew Perry of 'Friends' fame doing in a movie about fools? Of course, he's decided to join the rest of his 'Friends' co-stars in their fleeting fiasco with movie stardom. Now who were they? Oh yes, one ended up playing the sidekick to a chimp, another ended up in bed with the dead man's mother, and the third was called either Romy or Michelle. I begin to see the trend - join the long line of make fun of me movies.
In view that this movie is termed a romantic comedy, a few comments must be mad to clarify that it is not all that romantic or all that funny. It is difficult to laugh or feel warm and fuzzy, when within the first half hour of the film, the couple are in bed, with child and married in the eyes of 'Elvis'. This is soon followed by the all too familiar post-marriage problems. Matthew Perry has great difficulty breaking out of stereotypic nice guy 'Friends' persona, and Hayek always plays here sultry women roles with enough spice to set the Mexican dip on fire.
Still this movie does point out some salient issues concerning the difficulties of inter-racial marriage, unsympathetic parents, and overprotective brothers. Those first few months after you just get married can be the most happy and also the most difficult - when you are still getting use to your partner's pace, and needing to find the middle ground on which the both of you agree. This is the major problem that these fools (Perry\Hayek) face when they rush into marriage - when push comes to shove, they only shove each other harder.
Fool Feel Scale: 0% Jack of Hearts / *HUMPTY DUMPTY* / Little Miss Muffett 100%
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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