The Out-of-Towners
USA 1999
Reviewed by Kim Newman
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Henry Clark, an Ohio advertising executive, hasn't told his wife Nancy he's been laid off. He's pinning all his career hopes on an interview with a New York agency. Nancy, depressed because her son has left for college and her daughter has dropped out of medical school to become an actress, decides to join Henry on his trip. Their plane is diverted to Boston, where they miss their connecting train to New York and are forced to rent a clapped-out car. Arriving in Manhattan, they are mugged. Next, they're humiliated at a luxury hotel managed by the supercilious Mr Mersault because their daughter has maxed out their only remaining credit card. In the hotel bar, Nancy tries to vamp hotel guest Greg to gain access to his room so she and Henry can freshen up. But Greg returns early with amorous intentions and the couple flee out of the window, incidentally observing Mersault dressed up in a lady guest's gown and jewels.
The Clarks sleep rough in Central Park and Henry is arrested for relieving himself in public. Nancy blackmails Mersault into paying for Henry's bail so he can make his job interview. But Henry is given a hallucinogen by a fellow prisoner and turns up at the ad agency just as his high crashes into manic depression. He ends up pitching an idea for a New York tourism campaign and gets the job. Some time later the Clarks attend the opening of a play starring their daughter.
Review
Neil Simon's original 1969 screenplay of The Out of Towners, as directed by Arthur Hiller, was (along with The Prisoner of Second Avenue, 1974) a work in which the playwright had his surrogate self suffer through the horrors of an especially vicious mid-life crisis. Jack Lemmon and his spouse, the earnestly awkward Sandy Dennis, were actually younger than the stars of this remake. Nonetheless, at that point in history (the era also of Coogan's Bluff and Midnight Cowboy) their straight-laced Midwesterners in the big city seemed stranded on the wrong side of a generation gap and a cultural divide. The Hiller version of The Out of Towners is more excruciating than funny, evoking Kafka and Sisyphus as well as Wile E. Coyote. It climaxes horribly with Lemmon cracking a tooth before the crucial job interview and has the couple fleeing in defeat from Manhattan only to have their plane hijacked to Cuba, by implication preferable to the Big Apple.
For this version, screenwriter Marc Lawrence takes the broad outline of Simon's script and softens it into the comedy of errors the original, which wasn't much appreciated on its release, might have liked to be. By starting the Clarks' run of bad luck in Ohio, as their marriage is crippled by Henry's covert unemployment (a theme lifted from The Prisoner of Second Avenue) and Nancy's bad case of empty-nest syndrome, the film diminishes Simon's vision of Manhattan as an infernal maelstrom. Delaying the city jitters by getting bogged down in the frustrated road trip, this initial misstep is extended further by the lengthy side trip to Boston, recalling Steve Martin's turn in Planes, Trains & Automobiles right down to the conflicts with blankly malevolent travel clerks. In another case of a stale marriage healed through crazy comedy, the horrors of the trip force the stuffy couple to cut loose - to become, in effect, Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn - and rediscover each other in adversity. While Lemmon and Dennis were crushed, Martin and Hawn finally triumph, picking up the necessary survival skills (seduction, blackmail, mendacity, borderline insanity) not only to get by in New York but to conquer it.
In its in-flight movie way, the film has a few genuinely funny incidental characters and situations, like the mugger who poses as Andrew Lloyd Webber and the hotel desk clerk who reacts to Nancy's plea of "couldn't you just trust us?" with a perfect doubletake. Since Martin (pre-Bowfinger) and Hawn fall into that sad category of 'not as funny as they used to be', the film has to haul in John Cleese as a rude hotel manager who's a lot more amusing before his exposure as a silly-walking transvestite. The Out-of-Towners has the look and feel of too many mock-sophisticated city comedies. There are sparkly lights even in the run-down sections of the city and a sop to Mayor Rudy Giuliani (who has a cameo) and his campaign to clean up the streets of New York, thus making them safe for Henry and Nancy Clark but invalidating the premise of Neil Simon's story.
Credits
- Producers
- Robert Cort
- David Madden
- Robert Evans
- Teri Schwartz
- Screenplay
- Marc Lawrence
- Based upon the screenplay by
- Neil Simon
- Director of Photography
- John Bailey
- Editor
- Kent Beyda
- Production Designer
- Ken Adam
- Music
- Marc Shaiman
- ©Paramount Pictures Corporation
- Production Companies
- Paramount Pictures presents a Robert Evans production in association with Cherry Alley Productions and the Cort/Madden Co.
- Executive Producers
- Christine Forsyth-Peters
- Philip E. Thomas
- Co-producer
- Andrew La Marca
- Associate Producer
- Philip E. Thomas
- Production Co-ordinators
- Christopher A. Debiec
- Scott Kordish
- Unit Production Managers
- Sharon Mann
- Richard Baratta
- Location Managers
- Lyn Pinezich
- Laura Sode-Matteson
- 2nd Unit:
- Laura Berning
- 2nd Unit Director
- Gary Hymes
- Assistant Directors
- Henry Bronchtein
- Amy Lauritsen
- Mike Risoli
- Jennifer Truelove
- Angela Barnes
- 2nd Unit:
- Tom Razzano
- Dylan Hopkins
- Script Supervisor
- Joanie Blum
- Casting
- Ilene Starger
- Associates:
- Kim Miscia
- Janice Wilde
- Voice:
- Leigh French
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Peter Norman
- Camera Operators
- Richard Turner
- Philip Abraham
- Anette Haellmick
- Gabor Kover
- Steadicam Operators
- Randy Nolen
- Jerry Holway
- Visual Effects
- Rhythm & Hues Studios
- Visual Effects Supervisor:
- Douglas Hans Smith
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Diane Fazio
- Supervising Digital Compositor:
- Robert Lurye
- Digital Compositing:
- Perry Kass
- Digital Matte Painting:
- Craig Mullins
- CG Animation:
- Lyndon Barrois
- CG Lighting:
- Guillaume Niquet
Additional Visual Effects- Pacific Data Images
- Visual Effects Supervisor:
- Richard Chuang
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Les Hunter
- Animator:
- Bertrand Ong
- Film Recordists:
- John Hanashiro
- Brice Parker
- Alex Zaphiris
- Production Co-ordinator:
- Jason Heapy
- Special Effects Co-ordinators
- Alan E. Lorimer
- Bill Traynor
- Special Effects
- Floyd Van Wey
- James Lorimer
- Paul Stewart
- John Peyser
- Doug Calli
- A.J. Thrasher
- Bart Traynor
- Model Maker
- Mariko Braswell
- Art Directors
- William F. O'Brien
- Charles Beal
- Senior Set Designers
- Darrell Wight
- Jack G. Taylor Jr
- Set Designers
- Mark Poll
- Alan Manzer
- Set Decorators
- Kathryn Peters
- Marvin March
- George DeTitta
- Storyboard Artists
- Anthony Zierhut
- Lorenzo Contessa
- Costume Designer
- Ann Roth
- Costume Supervisors
- Pam Wise
- Kate Edwards
- Marsha Patton
- Additional Wardrobe
- Amy Roth
- Supervising Make-up Artists
- Kenneth Myers
- John Elliot
- Margot Boccia
- Supervising Hair Stylists
- Charlotte Gravenor
- Janice Alexander
- Nathan Busch
- 2nd Unit:
- Suzana Meziri
- Title Design
- David Weisman
- Titles
- Cinema Research Corporation
- Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Orchestra Conductor
- Pete Anthony
- Orchestrations
- Jeff Atmajian
- Brad Dechter
- Frank Bennett
- Patrick Russ
- Music Editor
- Dan DiPrima
- Music Programmer
- Nick Vidar
- Music Recordist/Mixer
- Dennis Sands
- Music Recordist
- Paul Wertheimer
- Soundtrack
- "(Just Like) Starting Over" by/performed by John Lennon; "Love Train" by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, performed by Louis Price, Mervyn Warren; "Limboland" by Amy Ziff, Alyson Palmer, performed by Betty; "Isn't It Romantic" by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, performed by Josie Aiello, Mervyn Warren; "That Old Black Magic" by Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, performed by (1) Louis Prima, Keely Smith, (2) The John Pizzarelli Trio; "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer, Joseph Esposito, Edward Hokenson, Bruce Sudano, performed by Donna Summer; "Aquarius" by Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni, James Rado, performed by Ronnie Dyson and Company from 'Hair'; "Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)" by Bart Howard
- Choreography
- Adam Shankman
- Sound Mixer
- David M. Kelson
- Re-recording Mixers
- Steve Pederson
- Gary Alexander
- Tom Perry
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Robert L. Sephton
- Sound Editors
- Jason King
- Jeff Payne
- Supervising Dialogue Editor
- Carin Rogers
- Dialogue Editors
- Susan Kurtz
- Richard Corwin
- ADR
- Mixer:
- Bob Baron
- Supervising Editor:
- Chris Welch
- Editor:
- David Cohn
- Foley
- Artists:
- Sarah Monat
- Catherine Harper
- Mixer:
- Randy K. Singer
- Supervising Editor:
- Christopher Flick
- Editors:
- Tom Small
- Tammy Fearing
- Scott Curtis
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Chris Howell
- 2nd Unit Helicopter Pilots
- Al Cerullo
- Mike Peavy
- Cast
- Steve Martin
- Henry Clark
- Goldie Hawn
- Nancy Clark
- John Cleese
- Mr Mersault
- Mark McKinney
- Greg
- Oliver Hudson
- Alan Clark
- Valerie Perri
- stewardess
- Steve Mittleman
- Randall Arney
- passengers
- Carlease Burke
- airline representative
- William Duell
- lost baggage clerk
- J.P. Bumstead
- Boston cab driver
- Peggy Mannix
- sweeper woman
- Anne Haney
- woman in bathroom
- Charlie Dell
- janitor on train
Jordan Baker- rental car clerk
- Tom Riis Farrell
- Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Dani Klein
- Michelle
- Daniel T. Parker
- Karen Elizabeth White
- desk clerks
- Alyson Palmer
- Elizabeth Ziff
- shoplifters
- Diane Cheng
- Korean grocer
- Christopher Durang
- paranoid man
- Mo Gaffney
- paranoid woman
- Mary Testa
- dominatrix
- Monica Birt
- supermodel
- John Elsen
- deli guy
- Babo Harrison
- well dressed woman
- Josh Mostel
- Doctor Faber
- Gregory Jbara
- Edward
- Amy Ziff
- Edward's friend
- Cynthia Nixon
- Sheena
- French Napier
- sexaholic
- Joseph Maher
- Mr Wellstone
- Constance McCashin
- Mrs Wellstone
- Steve Bean
- Greg's friend
- James Arone
- room service waiter
- Philip Earl Johnson
- hotel security man
- Ernie Sabella
- getaway driver
- Jack Willis
- robber
- John Pizzarelli
- band leader
- Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
- New York mayor
- Scotty Bloch
- Florence Needleman
- Chris McKinney
- Joe Grifasi
- arresting cops
- Jerome Preston Bates
- prisoner 1
- Jack McGee
- Sergeant Jordan
- Jacinto Taras Riddick
- prisoner 2
- L.B. Fisher
- Howard the bellman
- Janna Lapidus
- Central Park woman
- T. Scott Cunningham
- Paul
- Mandy Sigfried
- receptionist
- Jenn Thompson
- Lisa Tobin
- John Gould Rubin
- Bill
- Christopher Duva
- Barry the bellman
- Arthur French
- cab driver
- Jessica Cauffiel
- Susan Clark
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- United International Pictures (UK) Ltd
- 8,301 feet
- 92 minutes 14 seconds
- Digital DTS sound/Dolby digital
- Colour by
- DeLuxe