Something Wild

SOMETHING WILD (Jonathan Demme, 1986)

When Charles Driggs (Jeff Daniels) slips out without paying for his lunch in SOMETHING WILD, another customer, Lulu (Melanie Griffith), notices and calls him out on it. Her interest isn’t in having him make things right with the New York City diner but in spotting him as a potential kindred spirit despite their contrasting appearances. Lulu’s flirtatiousness captivates Charles, and he accepts her offer to drive him back to his office. She has other plans, though, and points her green convertible westward for the beginning of a weekend adventure.

Charles doesn’t know what he’s got himself into with Lulu, whose real name he learns is Audrey. She regularly tests the buttoned up businessman’s capacity for lying, which extends farther than the husband and father of two would initially seem to possess. He makes up excuses for his boss and his wife regarding why he won’t be where he’s supposed to be. Meanwhile, Charles and Audrey pose as husband and wife for her mother and former high school classmates at her tenth reunion. Charles is enjoying this momentary freedom, but when Ray (Ray Liotta), an old acquaintance of Audrey’s, crosses their path, Charles finds that are also consequences to such impulsiveness.

Delivering on the title’s promise, SOMETHING WILD maintains its unpredictability as the two strangers weave their way across a few states. Although the film ultimately guides them to a conventional destination, the trip to that place is less psychologically straightforward and more perilous than in a standard romantic comedy. Charles’ initial attraction is plain as day, but what leads him to risk his established life so recklessly takes time to be revealed. It’s harder to get a read on Audrey and her motivations even as she fits into an an increasingly familiar film type.

SOMETHING WILD’s Audrey might be considered one of the progenitors of the quirky woman who shakes a rudderless man out of his boredom and unhappiness, as in GARDEN STATE and (500) DAYS OF SUMMER. The difference is that E. Max Frye’s screenplay resists the notion that she is a starry-eyed genie whose winsome nature alone can make everything better or that she exists primarily for Charles’ salvation. In fact, by adopting the name and black bob of Louise Brooks’ character in PANDORA’S BOX, Audrey presenting as Lulu suggests the inherent danger in Charles following her. He doesn’t know her but makes assumptions based entirely on what he can see and the fantasy-like role she fulfills. What might be thought of as her true self, the girl next door, still seems like a part imposed on her that she’s trying to escape. Griffith’s portrayal brings complexity to Audrey as someone with a strong idea of who she wants to be but not always the ability to be in control.

The work of recently deceased director Jonathan Demme exudes warmth for the people in his films, even those who aren’t front and center. As a road movie SOMETHING WILD provides the opportunity to meet all sorts of folks, and it’s remarkable how many of them make an impression with a minimum of time. Whether it’s a helpful gas station attendant, a group of B-boys in the background, or two old women working at a junk store, played by the mothers of the director and David Byrne, the film spots the decency in those one comes into contact with but don’t give a second thought to. The main characters in SOMETHING WILD have restless spirits, but Demme softly reminds us that there’s plenty to connect with wherever we are without always having to look elsewhere.

Grade: B+

Dumb and Dumber To

DUMB AND DUMBER TO (Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly, 2014)

In DUMB AND DUMBER TO Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) has been institutionalized for two decades, although his infirmity has been a extensive practical joke he’s been pulling on his best friend Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels), who has faithfully visited and changed his diapers every Wednesday. When Harry informs Lloyd that he can’t come any longer because of his own medical condition, the prank is revealed, leaving them to tackle Harry’s issue together.

Harry needs a kidney transplant. Lloyd isn’t keen to give him one of his, but they may have found a solution when they learn Harry is the father of an early twentysomething daughter he never knew he had. The girl’s mother Fraida (Kathleen Turner) gave her up for adoption to a scientist and his wife but does know where she lives. The boys leave Rhode Island to find Penny (Rachel Melvin) only to arrive at her home after she’s departed to make a presentation at a technology conference in El Paso for her ill, Nobel Prize-winning father (Steve Tom). Penny left Dr. Pinchelow’s invention behind, so the two numbskulls are entrusted to deliver it to her as Harry pursues a daughter and donor and Lloyd seeks a bride.

For a film in which a fair amount of the humor involves what goes in and comes out of orifices, DUMB AND DUMBER TO manages to seem inoffensive despite its crudity. The vulgar comedic ingenuity includes a cat’s feathery flatulence and a father’s hilariously inappropriate advice for dealing with menstruation. DUMB AND DUMBER TO serves as a good example of how limitations can work in a comedy’s favor, even one that employs shock value. Although it’s astonishing that the gag with an elderly woman in a nursing home was permitted in a PG-13 film, the rating requires a certain amount of nuance and cleverness that more graphic language and visuals don’t need. The laughs are produced from the tension between what’s suggested and shown. Frankly, it seems like the film gets away with more because it leads the audience to fill in the blanks rather than pounding us over the head with the jokes’ climaxes.

As Lloyd explains to Harry regarding his 20-year prank, some things are funnier the longer the punchline is delayed. Co-writers and directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly smartly execute low humor through constructed gags with several small rewards before the big payoffs. In the case of Harry’s pleasant memory being reproduced on a screen, the funniest aspect isn’t the filthy capper but an aside about shutting the door. DUMB AND DUMBER TO’s greater strength may be in the silly literalness with which its characters interact with the world, though. True to the film’s title the jokes are often dumb, like Lloyd and Harry pedaling their bicycle while it’s mounted on a bus’s rack, and dumber, such as a play on words with a highway named after an actress, but they’re delivered with such brio that it’s hard to resist the stupidity.

The Farrellys and four other credited screenwriters throw plenty of coarse jokes against the wall and many stick, but the film has patchy stretches, especially after Lloyd and Harry reach their destination. The plot merely serves as an excuse to link sketches involving the twosome acting like doofuses and thus doesn’t provide much momentum. Whenever it seems like DUMB AND DUMBER TO may be stalling out, along comes a puerile wisecrack or two to sustain the good will it was starting to lose.

The Farrellys put a good bit of craft in DUMB AND DUMBER TO, even if their film is just an elevated version of kids in the cafeteria trying to crack up their friends. It’s as simple and amusing as watching Carrey wolf down a hot dog as though he’s Homer Simpson and then wiping his mouth with the bun that he throws away.

Grade: B-