Brash, eager young turk Peter Fonda, the wayward scion of a wealthy family, comes back to his sleepy Key West, Florida home town and decides to become a river boat fishing guide, which ignites a bitter feud between Fonda and two fiercely independent, self-made working class fellow guides -- cantankerous, ferocious near crazy Warren Oates and his laid-back, but fretful buddy Harry Dean Stanton -- over some choice section of fish-infected water.
An authentically wiggy, amiable, frothy, if somewhat erratic character-based study of the classic rivalry between the bratty, lazy new generation and the crusty, hidebound old guard who automatically feel threatened by any hotshot young competition with an incisive grounding in the rigid parameters separating the hoity-toity, overconfident upper class from scruffy, fidgety blue collar folks, "92 in the Shade" makes for a disarmingly quirky seriocomic delight. Acclaimed novelist Tom McGuane's presentation of the nutty, enrapturing, intriguingly off-beat narrative tends to be pretty clumsy and unsteady, but there's a catchy, idiosyncratic, nicely relaxed rhythm to the eccentric proceedings which neatly ingratiates itself upon the viewer. Moreover, the sharply observed characters are an amusing, enjoyable, entertaining bunch of cranky, obstinate kooks, the dialogue is often riotous ("Take your hat off, will ya? Let your brains cool off -- you're thinking too hard!"), Michael C. Butler's bright, eye-catching cinematography gives the movie an attractive sparkling look, Michael J. Lewis supplies a pleasingly bluesy'n'woozy score, and there are plenty of hilariously wacky moments featured throughout.
The terrific cast includes Margot Kidder as Fonda's flaky, flighty school teacher girlfriend, Burgess Meredith as Fonda's crotchety, foul-mouthed rich grandfather, Elizabeth Ashley as Stanton's pregnant, terminally out to lunch wife (she has this annoying tendency to dress up as a cheerleader and do baton twirls in front of total strangers), William Hickey as Fonda's sickly, gloomy failure of a dad, Sylvia Miles as Meredith's loopy, sardonic secretary, Louise Lathom as Fonda's bored mother, and, in an uncharacteristically goofy role, a surprisingly uproarious Joe Spinell as Ollie Slatt, an insufferably smug and seriously obtuse businessman who professes to be a devout sportsman, but knows positively nothing about fishing. Fonda, Stanton and especially Oates in particular give funny, engaging, top-drawer performances. Although a bit rough around the edges, "92 in the Shade" generally succeeds with its keen depiction of everyday oddballs who are constantly at loggerheads with each other and overall rates as a leisurely paced, wryly humorous one-of-a-kind charmer.
An authentically wiggy, amiable, frothy, if somewhat erratic character-based study of the classic rivalry between the bratty, lazy new generation and the crusty, hidebound old guard who automatically feel threatened by any hotshot young competition with an incisive grounding in the rigid parameters separating the hoity-toity, overconfident upper class from scruffy, fidgety blue collar folks, "92 in the Shade" makes for a disarmingly quirky seriocomic delight. Acclaimed novelist Tom McGuane's presentation of the nutty, enrapturing, intriguingly off-beat narrative tends to be pretty clumsy and unsteady, but there's a catchy, idiosyncratic, nicely relaxed rhythm to the eccentric proceedings which neatly ingratiates itself upon the viewer. Moreover, the sharply observed characters are an amusing, enjoyable, entertaining bunch of cranky, obstinate kooks, the dialogue is often riotous ("Take your hat off, will ya? Let your brains cool off -- you're thinking too hard!"), Michael C. Butler's bright, eye-catching cinematography gives the movie an attractive sparkling look, Michael J. Lewis supplies a pleasingly bluesy'n'woozy score, and there are plenty of hilariously wacky moments featured throughout.
The terrific cast includes Margot Kidder as Fonda's flaky, flighty school teacher girlfriend, Burgess Meredith as Fonda's crotchety, foul-mouthed rich grandfather, Elizabeth Ashley as Stanton's pregnant, terminally out to lunch wife (she has this annoying tendency to dress up as a cheerleader and do baton twirls in front of total strangers), William Hickey as Fonda's sickly, gloomy failure of a dad, Sylvia Miles as Meredith's loopy, sardonic secretary, Louise Lathom as Fonda's bored mother, and, in an uncharacteristically goofy role, a surprisingly uproarious Joe Spinell as Ollie Slatt, an insufferably smug and seriously obtuse businessman who professes to be a devout sportsman, but knows positively nothing about fishing. Fonda, Stanton and especially Oates in particular give funny, engaging, top-drawer performances. Although a bit rough around the edges, "92 in the Shade" generally succeeds with its keen depiction of everyday oddballs who are constantly at loggerheads with each other and overall rates as a leisurely paced, wryly humorous one-of-a-kind charmer.