Day Three Hundred and Seven - Return To Me, "also known as 'Romance for 40-Somethings'"

In every era of filmmaking there are attempts to drag the romantic date movie out of the exclusive realm of twenty to thirtysomethings and tap into the love lines of the older set. Around the same time that this came out there was also You've Got Mail, another almost saccharine sweet 'will they/won't they, in spite of the elephant in the room.'

The first fifteen minutes or so of the film introduce us to David Duchovny's Bob who is a successful architect and happily married to a zoologist who, after we're shown their perfect little life, dies as a result of a car accident. We also meet Minnie Driver's Grace who has a congenital heart issue that requires a transplant. Lo and Behold, she receives Bob's dead wife's heart, unbeknownst to both of them.

I mean, they both know someone go the transplant... but they don't know who got/gave it due to the anonymity of the organ bank. That doesn't stop Grace from sending a letter of thanks (even though she's very hesitant), though, which the organ bank passes on to Bob.

Skip to a horrible set-up by Bob's generic African-American best friend (another trope of these kinds of movies), played by David Allen Grier, which coincidentally takes Bob to the same restaurant that Grace's family owns and she works at. They have a moment or two and the rest, as they say, is history, as the remainder of the film is the two of them falling in love until that fateful moment when Grace finds the letter and has to confess that she was the one who got the heart.

Let me tell you, this film is designed to make women swoon and tear up. Whether it's how generically perfect the male lead is or how cutely insecure the female lead remains for the majority of the film, not to mention the "happy family" contrast that best friends Bonnie Hunt and James Belushi hold up, there are far, far too many moments of "Awwwwww...." Though that's not necessarily a bad thing, it just make for an okay movie and not a great one.

The main conflict is about as weak as they come as, despite the lingering love for his lost wife, Bob and Grace should have been more than able to work out this extremely unlikely little wrinkle without her having to move to Rome to supposedly give Bob his space. Blech. Still, it is unbearably sweet.

I think what really did it for me where the supporting characters, particularly Carroll O'Connor and (still kicking) Robert Loggia as Grace's Grandfather and Granduncle  respectively. They and their group of friends (which includes Eddie Jones from Lois & Clark and Dune fame), are a terrific bunch of Greatest Generation Irish and Italian stereotypes, infatuated with bowling and The Rat Pack. The innocent meddling they do is so much more cute and entertaining than Grier's attempts, though I had to cringe when they finally met Grier's Charlie for the first time and can only talk about how they like Sammy Davis, Jr., and Bills Cosby, and... well, you see where this is going.

Overall, Return to Me is your typical Chick Flick that is pretty safe as the closest they ever get to sex is innuendo and a little necking (since Grace is severely self-conscious about her scar). It's not the greatest, but is definitely a professional achievement that co-star, writer, and director Bonnie Hunt can be proud of, I think. Kudos to you, Bonnie.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Two Hundred and Sixty-five - The Man With One Red Shoe, "It's SO ridiculous, that I can ALMOST actually believe it"

The Cold War was a golden age for both spy dramas and comedies... and a reality where the truth seemed, sometimes, stranger than fiction... so much so that it could totally be plausible for rogue factions of the CIA to be playing these sorts of games in order to resolve a power struggle.

I'm speaking, of course, of the antics of Dabney Coleman and Charles Durning in the film (which is a remake of a french piece), one an ambitious field leader gunning for the Director's position that the other holds. Both men have loyal agents on their side and both men play fast and loose with the lives of the little people, more worried about their own power than the greater good.

While shows like The West Wing prefer to inspire with the idea that government workers serve at the will of the President to make the world a better place... a real Camelot mentality... the 80's were full of cynical films like this where it was all about "I've got mine, Jack."

As a vehicle for Tom Hanks, it's safe to say that he has better titles under his belt, both before and since. He plays the eponymous Man with the One Red Shoe whom Ed Herrmann (as the assistant to Durning's CIA Director) randomly picks out of a crowd to send Coleman's crew on a wild goose chase after. Hanks' Richard Drew is a violinist having a reluctant affair with his best friend's (Jim Belushi) wife (Carrie Fisher) (the sort of thing you could get away with in, say, France), who finds himself drawn to Lori Singer's secret agent who is trying to covertly steal whatever it is they think he might be hiding being the spy that he really isn't.

What follows from the premise is an unhappy comedy of errors where Hanks unintentionally outwits the efforts of the crack CIA squad shadowing his every move. Not only that, but he manages to avoid Jim Belushi's jealous rage through more mishaps that make Belushi's character, Morris, feel as if he's hallucinating dead bodies everywhere.

It's hard to believe Lori Singer's portrayal as a gung-ho honey trap who falls for her mark. Her acting is never convincing and she basically feels like she was cast as a substitute for Daryl Hannah as her look screams that the director was going for the exact same box office magic as Splash, trying to steal thunder from Ron Howard.

That's not to say that there aren't a few interesting shots. While, overall, the cinematography is rote and occasionally goofy, there are moments at the beginning when Ed Herrmann is searching the airport for his patsy that are actually a little inspired. They quickly fall to the wayside in favor of cheap production work, though.

I think that my biggest disappointment, though, is the cameo of David Ogden Stiers as the conductor of Hanks' orchestra. I love the man to death and he has serious presence... it's just such a shame that he is only in this one scene. The movie could've stood to have a few recurring characters like him to offer balance to the increasing surreal antics of the two CIA teams.

As movies go, The Man With One Red Shoe is a cheap Saturday matinee at best, only really worth seeing if you're working through Hanks' film catalog. I'd say skip it... and check out the original: The Tall, Blonde Man With One Black Shoe!

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~