Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
There is something fanciful and lighter than air about the intentions here, with a strain of something else very serious. And I respect a director (Francis Ford Coppola) trying to find a new airiness and unreality in this photographically real medium, especially with resorting to outward fancy. On the outside, this is a realistic film with acting meant to be at least as real as a good soap opera. And I mean that in a pertinent way...it is over the top interpersonal drama, and improbable.
So what goes wrong? I think that might be definable by some doctoral student, and it's some combination of editing, which is either awkward or merely functional, and the basic story itself, which is stretched thin over two hours. Other movies play with an existential trip while winking, but they keep the mind-bending part of the problem changing and moving, and that doesn't happen here.
The final nail in the coffin is the weak acting, even from Nicholas Cage (Coppola's nephew). At times it seems it's supposed to be farcical and comic booky, but it isn't quite plastic or silly or believable enough to work. The one exception is the very real and compelling lead, Peggy Sue, played by Kathleen Turner.
The biggest bummer is that it's such a sweet idea, such a wistful, wishful idea, and it just doesn't fly.
There is something fanciful and lighter than air about the intentions here, with a strain of something else very serious. And I respect a director (Francis Ford Coppola) trying to find a new airiness and unreality in this photographically real medium, especially with resorting to outward fancy. On the outside, this is a realistic film with acting meant to be at least as real as a good soap opera. And I mean that in a pertinent way...it is over the top interpersonal drama, and improbable.
So what goes wrong? I think that might be definable by some doctoral student, and it's some combination of editing, which is either awkward or merely functional, and the basic story itself, which is stretched thin over two hours. Other movies play with an existential trip while winking, but they keep the mind-bending part of the problem changing and moving, and that doesn't happen here.
The final nail in the coffin is the weak acting, even from Nicholas Cage (Coppola's nephew). At times it seems it's supposed to be farcical and comic booky, but it isn't quite plastic or silly or believable enough to work. The one exception is the very real and compelling lead, Peggy Sue, played by Kathleen Turner.
The biggest bummer is that it's such a sweet idea, such a wistful, wishful idea, and it just doesn't fly.