Department of Settlements

SO THIS was an experi-ment, much in the same way that my nephew Josh's pouring a glass of water down the back of a television when he was four was an experiment. (I kid you not, that was his explanation for it.) The Wifey has been on a Pad Thai kick for awhile, and so decided to take advantage of the offer in the local mega-mart to buy one Annie Chung product and get one free. The product she got was not Pad Thai, but the one I got was most certainly not hot and sour soup. The bits of it that were not offensively bland were downright nasty. The noodles tatsted like factory dust. The dumplings, which were of an entirely different brand, were better, but still not as good as I would have gotten had I called out to our local joint, which is excellent. The beer at least was good, Harpoon Summer Beer followed by their Bohemian Pilsner. A nice light lager followed by a ridiculously over-hopped pils, which went great with the chocolate cookies I had for dessert.

This was less and experiment than a requirement. I have been a big fan of Mary Elizabeth Ellis' work on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ever since I started watching the series in its third season, and I had heard good things about this movie in researching the cast of that show-- and that she was one of the writers. And it was pretty much precisely what I expected. A rich slice-of-life drama in which pretty much everyone gets their turns, good and bad. The script seemed to have been crafted on the basis that every one of us is a screw-up, given the proper motivations. There was only one plot point that I found somewhat implausible, but it was pretty well set up beforehand, such that it was not completely implausible, so I let that slide. And it had a drop-out-bottom ending that was just terrific, in that it both negated and amplified the entire plot in one fell swoop.

Took a damned long time getting there, though. Life is full of dull moments. Kudos to the writers for sticking 'em in.

This, on the other hand, was about 90% better than it had any right to be. That had largely to do with the New York & Long Island settings and the deeply commited performances, especially from Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, who were both adorably commited to their roles, so much that I almost bought Sheedy as a cop. (Ally Seedy as a cop. Let that percolate a little.)
Watching Alan Alda and Joe Pesci duke it out was great fun, but it was even more fun watching Anthony LaPaglia stretch his New York Mobster cliche of a character all out of shape, and then Burt Young-- hell, what's there to say about Burt Young? Always good to see Burt workin' it. Every single element came out the Big Book of Hollywood Cliches, but damn if it didn't end up being a great deal of fun.

So do I recommend it? Hell no. Chinese, Thai and Mexican food should never be attempted at home. Maybe if you have a gourmet or industrial grade kitchen, but I'm not even sure about that. And Annie Chun can go to hell with an anchor around her neck. If your have an afternoon free, relax, stretch out, and don't expect any of the characters to behave perfectly-- and be prepared to be angry and dissapointed with each of them at some point. And stay 'til the end, that droput ending is a killer. And if you want and example of why the 80's ended early, you can't do much better than Betsy's Wedding. There were a few juctures where several of the actors clearly thought they were in a different kind of movie than the others thought they were in, and that made it as much fun as anything else.