Sour Grapes
USA 1997
Reviewed by Andy Richards
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Richie Maxwell and his cousin Evan, a brain surgeon, are spending the weekend with their girlfriends in Atlantic City. Having exhausted their gambling funds, Richie drops his last quarter into a fruit machine. Evan gives him two more quarters to have a chance of the big prize. Richie wins a jackpot of $436,214, but offers Evan only $1,000 to cover his gambling losses. Evan insists he's entitled to half of the jackpot. The cousins part acrimoniously.
Evan informs Richie that Richie has an inoperable brain tumour. Knowing his doting mother Selma will be devastated by his death, Richie plans a mercy killing for her. Richie instructs a friendly bum, Digby, to break into his mother's house. Selma collapses from shock, and is hospitalised. Evan calls the next day to tell Richie that the tumour was a joke. Evan botches an operation performed on television soap star Danny Pepper, accidentally emasculating him, which results in Pepper losing his job.
The cousins are both dumped by their girlfriends. Richie is told that Selma needs a brain operation. Richie begs Evan to do it. He successfully performs the operation - and asks for a fee of $218,000.
Returning home, Evan is confronted by Pepper. During the scuffle, the briefcase of money falls from the balcony; Digby finds it. When she discovers that Digby and his friends have moved into her house, Selma has a fatal heart attack. At her funeral, Selma's landlord gives Richie a hefty bill for damages; Richie gives Evan two quarters for a parking meter; and Digby arrives in an expensive car.
Review
The feature debut of Larry David (co-creator with Jerry Seinfeld of the television sitcom Seinfeld), Sour Grapes provides dispiriting evidence that material rooted in the conventions of the 22-minute television sitcom is not easily accommodated to the expanses of a feature film. Deprived of the safety net of a laugh track and a regular audience's familiarity with established characters, Sour Grapes is painfully ill-conceived. Its premise - two cousins feuding over the fruit-machine jackpot both of them contributed money towards - is too flimsy a foundation. Its clumsy ragbag of themes and sub-themes - the venality of television networks, male sexual insecurities and so on - only demonstrates the film's lack of focus.
Presumably an ad hoc structure appeals to David because he has been constrained for so long by Seinfeld's tight format and the constant rapidity with which that show demanded new ideas. However, as a result, Sour Grapes lacks identity: its humour varies in tone erratically from the vulgar (a running gag has Craig Bierko's Richie fellate himself), to the self-consciously arch (there's a diversion about Eskimo court procedure) to the tired Jewish-mother material already familiar from Seinfeld itself.
Accidental emasculation aside, the film never attains the blackness of comedy for which David seems to be striving. It even opts unwisely for a brief parody of Seinfeld's ratings-rival Friends - Danny Pepper's excruciatingly smug show Guys and Gals - but this step out of the fictional world merely reminds viewers of the film's inadequacies.
Lacking stars, Sour Grapes satisfies itself with lesser-knowns Craig Bierko and Steven Weber, an uncharismatic duo who cannot sustain our interest in the blandly unsympathetic rival cousins they play. A curiously throwaway cameo from Philip Baker Hall (who was masterful in Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight), and a severely underdeveloped role for Hal Hartley collaborator Karen Sillas as Evan's girlfriend Joan are also questionable. This kind of casting, perhaps designed to give the production a spurious US-indie flavour, seems redundant and wasteful in a film that fails to play as anything other than over-extended, low-brow television - an impression compounded by the unimaginative televisual style of static master shots jumping back and forth into close-ups. David will have work harder at extended play in future to escape his sitcom prison.
Credits
- Producer
- Laurie Lennard
- Screenplay
- Larry David
- Director of Photography
- Victor Hammer
- Editor
- Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
- Production Designer
- Charles Rosen
- ©Castle Rock Entertainment
- Production Company
- A Castle Rock Entertainment presentation
- Executive Producer
- Barry Berg
- Associate Producer
- Yoli Poropat
- Production Co-ordinators
- Brigette Lester
- Atlantic City/New York:
- Alexis Arnold
- Production Managers
- Barry Berg
- Atlantic City/New York:
- Richard Baratta
- Location Manager
- Ross C. Day
- Post-production Supervisor
- Tricia Miles
- Assistant Directors
- Daniel Silverberg
- Ellie Smith
- Maura T. McKeown
- Atlantic City/New York:
- Terry Ham
- Script Supervisor
- Harri James
- Casting
- Liberman/Hirschfeld Casting
- Associate:
- Debby Gross
- Voices:
- Sandy Holt
- Loopease
- Camera Operator
- Russell McElhatton
- Aerial Operator
- Atlantic City/New York:
- Brian Heller
- Steadicam Operator
- Russell McElhatton
- Digital Composites
- D-Rez Hollywood
- Senior Digital Artist:
- Janice Tso
- Digital Artist:
- Heidy Hughes
- Digital Production Co-ordinator:
- Jená Burke
- Digital Colour Timer:
- Mathieu Reid
- Special Effects Co-ordinator
- Mike Thompson
- Art Director
- Chas Butcher
- Set Designer
- Stan Tropp
- Set Decorator
- Anne D. McCulley
- Costume Designer
- Debra McGuire
- Costume Supervisor
- Diane Crooke
- Wardrobe Supervisors
- Atlantic City/New York, Men:
- David Dumais
- Atlantic City/New York, Women:
- Gail A. Fitzgibbons
- Make-up
- Department Head:
- Brad Wilder
- Atlantic City/New York, Artist:
- John Caglione Jr
- Hairstylists
- Head:
- Dione Taylor
- Atlantic City/New York:
- William A. Kohout
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title
- Main Title Effects
- The Chandler Group
- Main Title Sequence Design
- Phill Norman
- Music Supervisor
- Jonathan Wolff
- Music Editor
- Robert Garrett
- Music Consultant
- Arlene Fishbach
- Soundtrack
- "Ballet Music from "Faust" by Charles Gounod, performed by
- London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Bonynge; "Adagio in C Major, BWV 564" by Johann Sebastian Bach, organ performed by Michael Murray; "Minuet op.11, no.5" by Luigi Boccherini, performed by Budapest Strings; "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" by Sammy Cahn, James Van Heusen, performed by Dean Martin; "Hungarian Dance No.7 in A" by Johannes Brahms, performed by London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antal Dorati; "Gavotte" from "Mignon" by Ambroise Thomas, performed by Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paul Paray; "Tales from the Vienna Woods" by Johann Strauss Jr; "Symphony #8" by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by BRT Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels, conducted by Alexander Rahbari; "Horn Concerto in E Flat, K495" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, performed by English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Barry Tuckwell; "String Quartet in G Major op.18, #2", "String Quartet in F Major op.59, #1" by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Orford String Quartet; "La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie)", overture from "Barber of Seville" by Gioacchino Rossini, performed by Zagreb Festival Orchestra, conducted by Michael Halász; "Grandfather", "The Hunters Approach with Their Guns" from "Peter and the Wolf" by Sergei Prokofiev, performed by Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ondrej Lenård; "Peer Gynt Suite #1, op.46" by Edvard Grieg, performed by Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Vernon Handley; "String Quartet #15 in G Major, D 887" by Franz Schubert, performed by Melos Quartett; "Dance of the Hours" from "La gioconda" by Amilcare Ponchielli, performed by Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Andras Korodi; "Theme from Wheel of Fortune" by Merv Griffin; "I'll Catch You If You Fall (Guys and Gals Theme)" by Jonathan Wolff; "String Quartet in G, K516" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, performed by Takacs String Quartet; overture and "Dance Boheme" from "Carmen" by Georges Bizet, performed by Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier; "Frühlingslied" by Felix Mendelssohn, performed by Budapest Strings; "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565" by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Michael Murray; overture from "Poet and Peasant" by Franz von Suppé, performed by Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, conducted by János Sándor
- Sound Mixers
- Production:
- Robert Janiger
- Atlantic City/New York:
- Tom Nelson
- Re-recording Mixers
- Scott Millan
- Brad Sherman
- Jim Fitzpatrick
- Supervising Sound Editor
- David A. Whittaker
- Sound Editors
- Andrew G. Patterson
- David Spence
- Jim Matheny
- Jeff Watts
- Supervising Dialogue Editor
- Avram D. Gold
- ADR
- Mixer:
- Greg Steele
- Paul Zydel
- Supervising Editor:
- Avram D. Gold
- Foley
- Artists:
- Robin Harlan
- Sarah Monat
- Recordist:
- Carolyn Sauer
- Mixer:
- Randy K. Singer
- Location Consultant
- Atlantic City/New York:
- Heidi Topper
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Roydon Clark
- Helicopter Pilot
- Atlantic City/New York:
- Al Cerullo
- Cast
- Steven Weber
- Evan
- Craig Bierko
- Richie Maxwell
- Matt Keeslar
- Danny Pepper
- Karen Sillas
- Joan
- Viola Harris
- Selma
- Robyn Peterman
- Roberta
- Orlando Jones
- Digby
- Richard Gant
- Detective Crouch
- James MacDonald
- Detective Frehill
- Jack Burns
- eulogist
- Scott Erik
- teenage Richie
- Michael Resnick
- teenage Evan
- Jennifer Leigh Warren
- Millie
- Anthony Parziale
- blackjack dealer
- Abraham Kessler
- crap dealer
- Fred Goehner
- floor manager
- Amy Hohn
- waitress
- Denise Bessette
- cocktail waitress
- Angelo Tiffe
- chauffeur
- Bari K. Willerford
- truck driver
- Alan Wilder
- Irwin
- Hiram Kasten
- male co-worker
- Kari Coleman
- female co-worker
- Rosanna Huffman
- Mr Bell's assistant
- Philip Baker Hall
- Mr Bell
- Harry Murphy
- anaesthesiologist 1
- Deirdre Lovejoy
- Nurse Wells
- Iqbal Theba
- Doctor Alagappan
- Tamara Clatterbuck
- Nurse Donato
- Helen Anzalone
- Nurse Jamison
- Ann Guilbert
- Mrs Drier
- Harper Roisman
- Mr Drier
- Edith Varon
- Fran
- Jack Kehler
- Jack
- John Toles-Bey
- Lee
- Michael Krawic
- Larry
- Sonya Eddy
- Nurse Loder
- Jill Talley
- Lois
- Bryan Gordon
- Doug
- Rachel Crane
- Allie
- Julie Claire
- Matisse
- Patrick Fabian
- Palmer
- Kevin Shinick
- Conner
- Meredith Salenger
- Degan
- Kristin Davis
- Riggs
- Larry David
- Jon Hayman
- Linda Wallem
- TV producers
- Ron West
- Doctor Isner
- Bruce Jarchow
- Doctor Dean
- Marvin Braverman
- bartender
- Arthur Chobanian
- man in bar
- Jack O'Connell
- homeless man
- Tucker Smallwood
- anaesthesiologist 2
- Mark Chaet
- Doctor Michaels
- Rande Leaman
- hospital worker
- Larry Brandenburg
- landlord
- James Gallery
- Mr Lesser
- Tom Dahlgren
- Mr Havelock
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Warner Bros Distributors (UK)
- 8,268 feet
- 91 minutes 52 seconds
- Dolby/SDDS
- Colour/Prints by Technicolor