It Could Happen to You, a breezy comedy with little more on its mind than proving that some people are fated for each other and isn't it swell when they finally hook up, wants to be this summer's Sleepless in Seattle, set in New York City. It's cute enough but fails to deliver on the wiggy promise of its early scenes.
This urban fairy tale, with its echoes of old Capra and Sturges pictures, is about a good-guy cop (Cage) who, finding himself unable to pay the tip one day, promises a sweet but harassed waitress (Fonda) that if his lottery ticket hits, he will split the proceeds with her. It does and he does, much to the consternation of his money-worshipping hairdresser wife (Perez). Cage and Fonda spend their winnings taking underprivileged kids to Yankee Stadium and feeding the homeless, while Perez spends hers on cosmetic surgery and mink coats. The two do-gooders, of course, soon realize they belong together, while Perez is fit only for Trump Tower.
All of this, under the direction of Andrew Bergman, plays brightly enough, but the movie runs out of comic oomph before it's over. Cage, showcased by Bergman previously in Honeymoon in Vegas, again proves that he has become an appealingly loopy leading man. There's nothing subtle, as usual, about Perez as she flashes her manicure and screeches her lines, but that doesn't keep her from stealing scenes. Fonda is the disappointment, never achieving a magical effervescence in her syrupy part. (PG)"
Julie Walters, Adrian Pasdar
Pasdar is a handsome young American banker in London, about to broker the biggest deal of his life. When his domestic affairs go awry, he finds sanctuary in a rooming house owned by the recently divorced Walters (in a characteristically terrific performance). Despite a considerable age difference, the two are immediately drawn to each other. But there's this problem: both like to wear the same kind of underwear, and we're not talking Jockey. Pasdar, though a devout heterosexual, is a cross-dresser (one of the movie's best scenes shows his transformation from banker to be-rouged babe). Walters, though shocked, is undeniably intrigued, begging to join Pasdar on his nocturnal rounds, ultimately falling in love with him. The feeling is returned.
Now, if only things were going as well at the office. Pasdar and his partner (Gordon Kennedy) grow suspicious that their boorish boss (Paul Freeman) is up to no good. But just when they have enough evidence to expose the lout, Pasdar is arrested for speeding while in lipstick and heels. He's out of a job and in a funk until Walters and Kennedy devise a plan. Just Like a Woman handles cross-dressing with great good humor. At one point, Walters, having encouraged Pasdar to go out as a woman during the day, looks askance at his ensemble. They're just going shopping, she says. "But all I have," says an aggrieved Pasdar, "is evening wear." (No rating)
Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones
After The Firm and The Pelican Brief, Hollywood's two previous middling attempts at translating author John Grisham's best-selling thrillers into first-class films, it's a pleasure to report that this latest try is a clear winner. The Client is a surefooted piece of commercial moviemaking that, although a tad slow out of the gate, soon delivers with a script that—when was the last time this happened?—concentrates as much on establishing character and setting as it does on the chase scenes.
The film's premise can't be beat: Just before he kills himself, a Mafia lawyer tells an 11-year-old boy (played with touching bravado by Brad Renfro) the whereabouts of the body of a U.S. senator slain by the attorney's client, a Mob hit man. The boy has seen enough TV to know that when it comes to Mafia murders a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Out to make him talk, no matter the consequences, is a politically ambitious federal prosecutor (Jones); out to shut him up for good is the Mafia assassin (Anthony LaPaglia). The only one with the kid's best interests at heart is his lawyer (Sarandon), who has her own troubled past.
Under the assured direction of Joel Schumacher, all of this plays out smart, fast and, at times, funny. It's a joy to watch Sarandon and Jones go after each other as wily dueling attorneys. No one can do high dudgeon ("What wanton hubris is this?") as well as Jones, and no one can do sexy-but-that's-not-what's-at-issue-here like Sarandon. Adding strong support are Mary Louise Parker as the youth's working-class mother, Ossie Davis as a judge, and LaPaglia as the slimeball killer. For Grisham fans this is the real thing; for non-Grisham fans, the hell with the book, just see the movie. (PG-13).
Taylor Nichols, Chris Eigeman, Tushka Bergen
Nichols is a sales rep for a Chicago-based corporation, doing a very earnest tour of duty in the Barcelona of the early '80s in this droll if slight comedy. He's confused about work (he doesn't know if he's cut out for sales) and, nursing a hangover from a failed fling, confused about love. Now is not a good time—there would never be a good time—for his shiftless, feckless and aggravating cousin (Eigeman), a Navy lieutenant on shore leave, to show up and bunk down. But here he is, "an advance for the Sixth Fleet," just at the time when anti-Americanism is at its height in the city While showing Eigeman the sights—one boulevard is described as "the Michigan Avenue of Barcelona"—Nichols confides a plan to shed his obsession with physical beauty and go out with only "plain or even rather homely women." All lofty intentions are off when he meets Bergen, a beauteous translator who shares his love for disco music from the late '70s. The romance is played out against a rising tide of political tension and violence (including the bombing of a USO) and against a rising tide of tension between the cousins. Nichols and Eigeman play off each other with great verve. Together, they're the strongest part of Barcelona, which, however fetching and witty, seems less a narrative than a series of blackout sketches. (PG-13)
- Contributors:
- Leah Rozen,
- Joanne Kaufman.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
