THE DAYTRIPPERS (1996) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Writer/Director: Greg Mottola Starring: Hope Davis, Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber, Anne Meara, Pat McNamara, Stanley Tucci, Campbell Scott, Marcia Gay Harden, Andy Brown, Paul Herman, Marc Grapey
The trailers for this film revelaed that this was to be a quirky, fast-paced, and very funny little comedy, filled with a great screenplay, good characterization, a simple-but-loveable plot, and even some depth. I mean, yeah, I laughed at some of the good lines, was hooked by the fact that it had a good cast, and even in a bit of awe since it boasted it was an official selection to be shown at Cannes. So, I was up for a good little bit of indie fun.
Then I saw the movie.
Now, granted, this aims for some depth, and has a lot of very funny moments, but overall, it's a disappointment, failing at nearly everything it aims for. It wants to be quirky and funny, and yeah, it is for a lot of it. It wants to have good characterization, and some of the characters are, although some of them are pure characteriteurs, and not real people at all. The simple plot is simple and likable, so that works. And there is some depth, but not a lot of it. And any depth it has is never followed up, and therefore fails.
Well, the plot deals with a woman named Eliza (Hope Davis, a dead ringer for Julie Delpy, although with a smaller mouth, I guess) who's married to a book editor, Louis (Stanley Tucci, who seems to be in everything these days), but one morning finds a love letter in her house after he leaves for work. Is it from him? Is it to him? All she knows is it has nothing to do with her. So she freaks.
She high-tails it over to her parents' house, consisting of her overbearing, and annoying-as-hell mother (Anne Meara), and her quiet and soft-spoken father (Pat McNamara). Also there are her sister (Parker Posey, who IS in everything these days), and her long-time boyfriend/possible fiance (Liev Schreiber), who's a very pretentious writer who's in the process of writing a satirical book about a man with a dog's head, which sounds like it might actually be a book I'd read. Oh well.
So they read the letter, and they decide to ask Louis to his face (since you can tell if someone is lying when you see them face to face). So they all cram into the family station wagon, and head into Manhattan to find him. This is a light-weight plot, and luckily writer/director Greg Mottola decides to go the road not-less traveled and give us a lot of interesting and funny dialogue, as to waste time and make the trip, and subsequently the film, more fun. So we get some little discussions, sometimes intellectual (Liev Schreiber's character is one of those pseudo-intellectuals, who repeatedly talks about how bad society is and how we should be in an aristocracy - this is later challenged).
We also get the occasional supporting character to take up some screen time with some speeches, lines, scenes, etc. The most interesting is a writer played by Campbell Scott (Stanley Tucci's bosom buddy) who seems to flirt with anyone with breasts, and tries to steal Posey from Schreiber. I've never really seen a whole lot of Scott, but he was just awesome in this flick. We also get a little pointless comic bit from Marcia Gay Harden at a party that they arrive at.
The ending aims for a lot of depth, etc, but just seems to end abruptly without a lot of explanation. There's a twist, which was much talked about, and yes, it's clever, but it's not brilliant or anything. It basically goes for the quick shock you might not have thought of.
But the big problem with this film is the mother. First off, let me say that she is wonderfully played by Anne Meara. She makes her totally overbearing, annoying, and does it so much that at one point, we almost want to cheer at one point where some obvious bottled-up-anger is released. But she's a flat character. There's no depth to her character. She's just annoying and overbearing, and that's it. Of course, we want to cheer at the point I just talked about - she's annoying. Anne does try to give her some depth, but the writing is just not there for her. Her character's portrayal in the writing is the weak link in the film, and brings it down.
I will say that this is more well written than the film actually ends up becoming. The dialogue is clever, very witty, and the characters are well-defined...well, almost. And the acting is very good, with the best performances coming from Posey, Schreiber, Scott, and...McNamara (I really liked what he did with the father, I don't know about anyone else). And there is a bit of depth to the film, but it's never deepend to its fullest potential limits.
"The Daytrippers" is an occasionally funny, sometimes dramatic, but overall unsatisfying little indie film which had potential to be an excellent comic drama and even a parody of the nuclear family (I guess). Anyway, I was pretty disappointed with this film, but it didn't suck. So much for advertising.
MY RATING (out of 4): **
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
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