This show biz drama may have you wanted to throw more than just rotting tomatoes at your TV screen if it didn't make you want to throw them at the movie screen when it first came out. That being said, I'm referring to some of the comics who get up in front of the microphone, their acts so unfunny that it's surprising that they made it out of the Gas Station open mic club alive. Fans of "Forrest Gump" will be relieved that that film mother and son, Sally Field and Tom Hanks, are not romantically involved here. In fact, it's obvious that they really don't like each other at first sight, and for one party, it's out of professional competition rather than anything else, an aspect easily resolved which results in a rare friendship on screen between a straight man and a straight woman. Hanks is an arrogant comic on the verge of better things who basically snubs Field, a New Jersey housewife and mother (married to John Goodman no less!) with ambitions to make it as a stand-up comic, spending her cookie jar money to get new material, eventually turning to Hanks who begrudgingly offers to help her after confessing his envy for her potential.
Yes, there are some funny moments, but the film is more dramatic than comical because it shows the darkness of the business and the people desperately trying to make it, many of them not very funny and also not very nice. So if you go into this knowing that you are not there for a barrel of laughs, you'll have an idea of what kind of mood to expect. There are some great seldomly seen on film New York City locations, particularly out in Queens right off the 7 train. Hanks, after a stand up routine that didn't have me laughing at all, goes to a hospital and games on improvisation based on the various patients and doctors and workers he plays to and is absolutely hysterical. That makes this film a hit and a mess in the on-screen performance routines, and the film overall does impress as far as the two lead characters are concerned. Nether Hanks nor Field can claim top honors, and they both use their starts in sitcoms to great advantage as far as timing is concerned.
There's more humor for Sally as she strives to be both a mother and wife and start a career as a comic, and with the Russian Rhapsody in the background (a great recording of it!) gets a real chance to show how funny she can be in a screwball comedy sort of way. That's where the film begins to make the audience believe that they are watching a comedy, but the overall mood of the film is melancholy and often bittersweet. But the setting of the dining table as she prepares a dinner party with her daughters is wonderfully stage, reminding me of something that Charlie Chaplin might have done 60 years before. The lighthearted moments really darken when Hanks bombs on stage and sealed looks on, feeling sorry for him. Goodman, who would go on to play the husband of a different kind of leading lady the same year on TV's "Roseanne", is great in his supporting role, similar in certain ways but definitely living a much more middle class life than his TV working class husband and father. Veteran movie director Mark Rydell gets to show his chops acting here as the Gas Station owner, commanding the scenery as if he had been doing it for years. There's also fellow director Paul Mazursky and a young Damon Wayans. It's obviously clear that the film did not set out to be a full-fledged comedy, so it's important that the audience going into watch this realize that this shows the darker side of that genre that is often hidden.
Yes, there are some funny moments, but the film is more dramatic than comical because it shows the darkness of the business and the people desperately trying to make it, many of them not very funny and also not very nice. So if you go into this knowing that you are not there for a barrel of laughs, you'll have an idea of what kind of mood to expect. There are some great seldomly seen on film New York City locations, particularly out in Queens right off the 7 train. Hanks, after a stand up routine that didn't have me laughing at all, goes to a hospital and games on improvisation based on the various patients and doctors and workers he plays to and is absolutely hysterical. That makes this film a hit and a mess in the on-screen performance routines, and the film overall does impress as far as the two lead characters are concerned. Nether Hanks nor Field can claim top honors, and they both use their starts in sitcoms to great advantage as far as timing is concerned.
There's more humor for Sally as she strives to be both a mother and wife and start a career as a comic, and with the Russian Rhapsody in the background (a great recording of it!) gets a real chance to show how funny she can be in a screwball comedy sort of way. That's where the film begins to make the audience believe that they are watching a comedy, but the overall mood of the film is melancholy and often bittersweet. But the setting of the dining table as she prepares a dinner party with her daughters is wonderfully stage, reminding me of something that Charlie Chaplin might have done 60 years before. The lighthearted moments really darken when Hanks bombs on stage and sealed looks on, feeling sorry for him. Goodman, who would go on to play the husband of a different kind of leading lady the same year on TV's "Roseanne", is great in his supporting role, similar in certain ways but definitely living a much more middle class life than his TV working class husband and father. Veteran movie director Mark Rydell gets to show his chops acting here as the Gas Station owner, commanding the scenery as if he had been doing it for years. There's also fellow director Paul Mazursky and a young Damon Wayans. It's obviously clear that the film did not set out to be a full-fledged comedy, so it's important that the audience going into watch this realize that this shows the darker side of that genre that is often hidden.