Thursday 2 November 2023

Men Don't Leave (1990 Paul Brickman & co-scr)

Don't they? I think they do. Written by Barbara Benedek and Brickman and 'suggested by' Moshe Mizrahi's film La Vie Continue (1981). Brickman (no relation to Marshall) wrote Citizen's Band, a Bad News Bears sequel, then hit the big time with Risky Business, then was so overwhelmed by its success he backed away from Hollywood.

Jessica Lange's husband dies; she moves her and her kids Chris O'Donnell and Charlie Korsmo to Baltimore and her life starts falling apart, despite meeting also single composer Arliss Howard and working for Kathy Bates. Her older son takes up with an older nurse, Joan Cusack, an interesting character, and the younger one starts stealing.

It's good, overall, definitely uplifted by Tom Newman's score and Bruce Surtees' photography. I didn't however understand why they didn't continue working on the house the husband was either building or renovating so that everyone could get paid out of the profit when it was sold.

Edited by Richard Chew (Star Wars, Cuckoo's Nest, The Conversation). Barbara Ling is the production designer.




Bates is amusingly made up as Liza Minnelli running her posh food shop 'Liza's'.

Also, the balloon ride was a good idea, but seems a missed trick not to actually show them in it (budget / logistics / timing / weather?)


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