I cant believe EMI authorised $20 million for this. A comedy without stars, from a director (John Schlesinger) who had never made a comedy before, which actually isn't a comedy. I don't want to sound like I'm wise in hindsight but surely even at the time they must have known it was risky.
Money is wasted wholesale - there's a massive parade sequence at the beginning which could be cut (the townsfolk think they're getting a bypass).
The film is a collection of vignettes about people who wind up at a Florida town. The film really should be about the town but we spend most of our time in cars/motels with people travelling to the town.
There's also no stakes - Beau Bridges leaves his wife to run off with Beverly d'Angelo but she leaves him. Jessica Tandy is a boozer which exasperates Hume Cronyn and we care because...? There are crooks on the run. there's some stunts but they don't make sense.
It feels like the film is mostly a first act, and we have a second act at the end and it needs a third act. I've love to know what happens to the nun who cuts lose. The robbers.
There is about five minutes of hectic stunts and sight gags at the end which were really funny - like the elephant on water skis - and made me go "oh that's what the movie is supposed to be! A big destructive comedy like The Blues Brothers." But that's only in the last five minutes.
William Devane's a good actor but not really a comic - they needed a comic. I wish Teri Garr's part had been bigger. I wish it had been more cohesive. It's not a bad movie - it's make with skill - it's just uneven and kind of pointless.
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