TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/040891/0408420.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.6 KB | 81 lines

                                                                                CINEMA, Page 82

Odd Couple, but Are They Fun?


By RICHARD SCHICKEL

THE MARRYING MAN
Directed by Jerry Rees
Screenplay by Neil Simon


    Yelling. Sulking. Wall punching. Dangerous objects flying
through the air. And, of course, one of the stars threatening
to take a few days off in Brazil. Seems she had an urgent need
to consult with her psychic. The near unmaking of The Marrying
Man and the on-set tiffing between its lead actors, Alec Baldwin
and Kim Basinger, made a much read and sermonized-over feature
in Premiere magazine. See what happens, said Hollywood, when
you give stars too much power as well as too much money.

    Oh, well, you know the old show-biz saying: Bad rehearsal,
good show. Or, in this case, pretty good show. Like a lot of us
who came of age in the late '40s and early '50s, Neil Simon
obviously based his youthful fantasies about the glamorous life
on newspaper reports of "playboys" (such a quaint word), who
when they weren't racing fast cars spent their idle lives in
pursuit of fast women. The script has about it a nice,
sweet-dreaming quality, and animation director Jerry Rees,
working for the first time on a feature, has invested The
Marrying Man with a very pleasant innocence of spirit.

    That is not as easy as it sounds. The lead lounge lizard,
toothpaste heir Charley Pearl (Baldwin), is engaged and
attending a Las Vegas bachelor party when he falls into
obsession with nightclub singer Vicki Anderson (Basinger). She,
in turn, is the mistress of the Strip's founding mobster, Bugsy
Siegel. In other words, these are not people with whom one feels
an immediate natural identification. Nor is their problem -- a
stormy relationship that requires them to marry and separate
four times -- one for which most people are likely to have an
affinity.

    About all that can be said for Charley is that his
reluctance to marry a spoiled-rotten fiance (Elisabeth Shue) and
take on a classically choleric movie mogul (Robert Loggia) in
the bargain is understandable. About all that can be said about
Vicki is that she is pretty and sings sexily.

    It is the sleight-of-hand plot, which requires the pair to
keep marrying and separating, that redeems the picture. The
film is so quick and busy that most of the time one forgets
they are essentially no-accounts, not entirely bright or
likable. Indeed, Simon's admission that they are based on
historical models -- shoe magnate Harry Karl and starlet Marie
("the Body") McDonald, whose misadventures in multiple marriage
titillated tabloid readers four decades ago -- renders the
jolliness of his writing, and Rees' direction, all the more
astonishing. They were, perhaps, a very odd couple, but not
necessarily a fun couple.

    Charley is surrounded by some funny best friends, led by
comedian Paul Reiser, who keeps the one-liners bouncing. And
Baldwin plays dumb and earnest in an engaging way. Basinger is
something of a problem. She is a very self-absorbed actress who
gives the impression of a woman trying to get in on a joke she
does not quite understand. Watching her reminds one wistfully
of tart, smart Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys.
But you can't have everything, and considering the difficulties
of its creation, The Marrying Man is something: a comedy that
bounces skittishly down a lane that memory has not traveled in
a while. Maybe it's silly. But it does awaken a nostalgic
fondness for an era when celebrity dreaming was goofier,
giddier and less consequential than it is now.