30 Second Bottom Line: Two middle-aged men drive themselves and their wives crazy as they go through a mid-life crisis focused around extra marital affairs.
Story Line: Warren Beatty is Porter Stoddard, and he is having an affair with a cellist named Alex (Natassja Kinski). Ellie Stoddard (Diane Keaton), his wife, feels she has a secure and happy marriage; though she leads a busy professional life and tries to keep tabs on the romantic entanglements of their twenty-something son and daughter.
Porter and Ellie's best friends are Mona and Griffin ((Goldie Hawn and Gary Shandling). When Mona discovers that Griffin is having an affair, Ellie provides compassionate support to her. What no one knows is that the person Griffin is seen with at a hotel is not at all who they appear to be. It's off to the divorce lawyer for Griffin and Mona.
Eventually Mona and Porter, who have been friends since childhood, have a one-night fling. When they say it "never happened" and then start to make it happen again, Ellie almost catches them when she comes by to visit.
Porter and Griffin decide to clear their heads by going to Sun Valley to ski, and get out of town and into the country. Porter had met Eugenie (Andie MacDowell) earlier on an airplane, when she assumed that he was having an affair with Mona. This was before they had been intimate; but it's clear that Eugenie has a nose for this sort of thing. Early in their introductions she tells Porter that she likes to sleep with architects, using the "f" word. Now, here in Sun Valley, he sees her on a ski lift and she invites him to meet her parents at their estate. These are the parents from hell. Mom is even "hell on wheels," as she's in a wheelchair.
Eugenie's father is Charlton Heston, who does by far the most original thing in the film, which is to become a wild gunman. Maybe there was some typecasting here. Considering that he is the President of the controversial NRA, this hits a home run on the campiness scale. Even if you have an intense dislike for Heston's role at the NRA, you have to give him credit for being able to not always take himself so seriously.
Later, while still in ski country, away from New York, Porter is seen by his children in a very compromising position with Auburn (Jenna Elfman). All the pieces of the puzzle are here for what is intended as a zany comedy. Unfortunately, it just doesn't come together…like a big corner piece is missing.
Tell Me More About It: Good movies with large budgets tend to be action flicks, due to extensive special effects. For a talky film, intended to be a comedy, a big budget is a warning sign of over writing, rewriting and in general, Hollywood gone berserk. This would be impossible to happen with an independent film.
The movie does have its good points and in some ways is enjoyable. How Hollywood could miss with this cast is a mystery. Lines fall flat. My inclination is that some of the key set ups are just not funny; are even hurtful and are not resolved. For instance, what's up with Eugenie and her daddy? There's almost a sinister taint to that relationship. As for Griffin and his coming out of hiding, it is humorless and handled awkwardly. What the filmmakers may have been shooting for was a Woody Allen type film. His usually come in around the $8 million mark (not over $80 million, as this cost) and Allen's films are much better than this. Let's see...spend more and make it worse with every dollar.
This is a movie that is so overproduced that it shoots itself in the foot in the pursuit of perfection. Having a mid life crisis is not that big of a deal. Most people have them.
The best way I can describe this film is that it's like a rocket that is supposed to go to the moon, but only rises to 50,000 feet and then just goes back to rest on the launch pad. While I don't encourage sloppy movie making, maybe James Brown was onto something when he said "Hit it and quit!"
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