Don't get me wrong - it's a cute movie. And Jennifer Aniston does a pretty good job with what she's been given. The problem that I had with it was that it just was not well written. The dialogue was pretty stiff and the story was silly. One of the major plot elements was that crazy WASPy shit happens all the time in Pasadena, CA. Didn't you know?!? I didn't know.
I think the reason for all the crazy WASPy shit has more to do with the bored rich white people than the location of where they live. And Pasadena was not a major focal point of "The Graduate", so it seems strange to lay so much pressure on one little city.
The plot is as follows: Sarah Huttinger comes home (to Pasadena!) for her younger sister's wedding. She brings with her her fiance, Jeff Daly (played by a long-suffering Mark Ruffalo - someone get this guy out of RomComs!) and this is his first time meeting the family. Sarah is nervous about getting married; she is in her early thirties and writes wedding announcement and obituaries for a living-an early on-set mid-life crisis fits nicely. Exacerbating this is her younger sister's over-flowing excitement at her upcoming nuptials.
At the pre-wedding dinner Sarah is reunited with her grandmother, Katherine Richelieu. Played by Shirley McClaine, Katherine comes off a bit more acidic than you might like. Her character was the basis for the now infamous "Mrs. Robinson" and it seems that the resulting years have taken their toll on her. Sarah learns from Katherine that her mother (Jocelyn) ran away a few days before her wedding. She made her way down to Cabo San Lucas and spent three days with a Beau Burroughs. Turns out Jocelyn and Beau had gone to school together and dated casually but that all ended when Beau and Katherine had an affair.
Sound familiar? It didn't to Sarah. Took her until the next day to figure out that the story Charles Webb put to paper in 1963 was (supposedly) based on her own family. Her only concern, and rightly so, was whether or not this mysterious Beau Burroughs is her biological father. Sarah's epiphany comes after meeting with one of her mother's old school mates (an oddly cast and uncredited Kathy Bates), who also mentions Beau's connection to Charles Webb; they went to college together.
After the wedding Sarah flies up to San Francisco to meet Beau and ask him about his relationship with her mother. Turns out that Beau has made quite a living for himself as a Silicon Valley Internet Wizard and, as portrayed by Kevin Costner, lives his life as a slightly weary man. Costner's casting in this situation was odd for me. His rakish charm didn't really come through and the weariness that seemly replaced it hardly beckoned me to his bed. But Sarah found him interesting enough to get drunk with and tumble into bed with.
Beau admits to the affairs (though no juicy details on Katherine's now infamous seduction) and explains that Jocelyn just showed up at his door-step and they spent their time together very much in love. But Jocelyn returned to her husband-to-be, leaving Beau by himself. This is where Beau has been ever since then it seems - all by himself. He explains that even though they slept together, Sarah couldn't possibly be his daughter as he had suffered from Blunt Testicular Trauma when he was a boy. This has left him incapable of concieving. This has also left me incapable of taking this movie seriously.
One of the things that I enjoyed from Ted Griffin's script and Rob Reiner's direction is that none of the performances were copied from the original film. While I may not have enjoyed Shirley McClaine's acid-tongue and broad-comedy antics or Kevin Costner's "world-weary" down-trodden slump, I was happy to see that no aping was going on. Besides, doesn't it make sense for the characters to have grown after all this time?
The story gets really really sloppy after this. Sarah, though guilt-stricken at her betrayal, decides to stay and join Beau at a charity ball. There she meets Beau's son Blake. GASP! Not really. Turns out he and his ex-wife had used artificial inseminated to become pregnant. Sarah kisses him and is caught by Jeff. Poor, poor Jeff. The poor bastard was back home in New York calling Sarah on the cell phone he accidentally left with her with no response, calling Beau's office with little result until finally explaining his predicament. That's when he miraculously shows up at the ball, is let in by security and finds his betrothed in a lip-lock with some dude in a tux. He's understandably mad and leaves Sarah.
Sarah goes back to Pasadena to talk to her grandmother. The exterior of Katherine's house is the same from "The Graduate" - a nice touch. Katherine is angered to hear what happened, but I was never quite sure if she was mad at Beau for possibly seducing Sarah or for Sarah's stupid behavior. After a scene so shrill and mind-numbing that I'd just rather not talk about it, Sarah and Katherine rush over to her father's house to attend to little sister Annie. Turns out that Annie and her new husband had to come back from their honeymoon because Annie had a full-scale panic attack.
The girls talk frankly, or that's what we are lead to believe since the scene cuts away to outside the house where Beau has inexplicably shown up. Did he know where Jocelyn had lived all this time? Did he go to Katherine's first and then was told where to go? I don't know. What I do know is that the screaming not-match Beau and Katherine compete in is the most interesting part of the film. Katherine tries to shame Beau for taking advantage of Sarah when she was in a weak position, but Beau fires back that he never took advantage of anyone in the Richelieu family. Turns out, Mrs. Richelieu WAS the one who seduced Beau. And Jocelyn came to Beau, both times. Now, it was Sarah's turn to look for comfort in Beau's arms.
It's an interesting look at an incomplete character. Consider that at the end of "The Graduate" Ben gets the girl but doesn't know what to do with her. As they leave the wedding in the public bus, both Ben and Elaine stare off into the unknown, not smiling. All Ben has is the fact that he was seduced by a bored housewife during a difficult time in his life; after that affair ended he fell quickly in love with a girl that was unattainable though searching for a way out of her guilded cage. He is a boy that became a man through the machinations of women looking to find themselves. No wonder he looks like shit now.
Sarah has explained the whole "The Graduate" situation to Annie, which somehow reinforces Annie's love for her husband and Sarah's love for Jeff. I give up. Anyway, they see grandma and Beau battling it out on the front yard and Sarah goes to talk to Beau. She tells him a bunch of stuff that I can't remember. I do recall there being a moment where Beau seriously tries to talk her into staying with him; it made me very sad to see an interesting man such as Beau left floundering. But Sarah basically tells him that there could never be anything more between them and firmly decided to go back to Jeff.
Sarah's father, Earl, comes out of the house and talks briefly with Beau. Earl seemingly has no idea that he's making friendly chit-chat with his dead wife's lover; we also learn that it was Earl who caused the testicular trauma during a soccer game the two played in their youth. How darling. I'd like to say right here and now that Richard Jenkins (who plays Earl) is a delightful and vastly under used actor.
Later that evening Sarah and her father have a heart-to-heart. He admits that he always knew about the affair. Turns out that Jocelyn may have liked the adventure of Beau but she loved Earl and the life that they could build together. They made love the night that she came back from Mexico, which explained why Sarah's birthday was so dangerously close to the wedding day. It also explained a few things for Sarah; she had always labored under the guilt of having been a burden on her mother and felt estranged from her family because she wasn't "blond enough" or "didn't play tennis well enough." This is poor writing no matter how you look at it. But I guess it doesn't matter since it can all be forgotten now that she knows the truth.
Sarah goes back to New York and talks to Jeff. I'll be honest: by this point I was totally over the film and spent the last 10 minutes of the movie talking with my boyfriend about my day. I'll tell you that they reconciled and got married. According to Wikipedia, Jeff agrees to come back to Sarah on the condition that if they have a daughter she never goes near Beau. HAHHAHAHAeehhhhh....
The movie ends with their wedding. Beau is there, sitting by himself. Now I wish I had paid attention because I feel that the story was just cheap and silly enough to possibly have Katherine pounce on the poor slob again.
This was my first foray into film review, so I'd like it if you let me know how I did. Obviously this isn't the most current film ever but it was one that grabbed my interest. I intend to review more films and eventually books. Any feedback is welcomed!
No comments:
Post a Comment