I caught this film on one of the newer movie channels that run essentially unknown movies from the past. This 1992 completely passed me by at the time. It's so nondescript there isn't much to hang on, other than Sissy Spacek, who was a star at the time. William Petersen was still floundering as a box office draw (a shame), a good decade ahead of his fame on CSI, but a brilliant actor nonetheless.
This film creeps in on you, as you sort of expect a mindless romantic comedy, since it's so light-hearted for the first hour, as Petersen's character employs every trick in the book to try to get his wife back.
The film is very stealthy the way it lures you in with mindless fun and then mild rooting for a man pulling all the romantic stops out to get back his woman, but it just doesn't turn out that way, and is a wonderfully real and thought-provoking film in that sense.
It reminds me a bit of the Wedding Singer, which also covered the topic of an aging ladies man facing realities, though this film isn't sidetracked at its climax.
Then again, the sleepy town everyone is so happy in is supported by a local steel mill that by now, would have shut down, and thrown everyone out of work. Maybe Petersen's Joey character is getting the best outcome anyway. Regardless, Petersen's acting is superb, and you really feel the conflict, pride, and hurt in the trials he goes through to let what was a good wife slip through his fingers, and try to rescue what he can with his daughter.
In the end, what starts as almost a light-hearted farce gets very real and very instructive, and can hit a bit too close to home for any aging Peter Pans. I wouldn't call this escapist fare, but not bad viewing for a man in his late 20s early 30s, which is ironic considering it's something more akin to the lifetime channel. It's message to women is one they know - a steady man is worth marrying. Not exactly a revelation, so I would say this movie is a romantic parable for men - quite a rarity.
This film creeps in on you, as you sort of expect a mindless romantic comedy, since it's so light-hearted for the first hour, as Petersen's character employs every trick in the book to try to get his wife back.
The film is very stealthy the way it lures you in with mindless fun and then mild rooting for a man pulling all the romantic stops out to get back his woman, but it just doesn't turn out that way, and is a wonderfully real and thought-provoking film in that sense.
It reminds me a bit of the Wedding Singer, which also covered the topic of an aging ladies man facing realities, though this film isn't sidetracked at its climax.
Then again, the sleepy town everyone is so happy in is supported by a local steel mill that by now, would have shut down, and thrown everyone out of work. Maybe Petersen's Joey character is getting the best outcome anyway. Regardless, Petersen's acting is superb, and you really feel the conflict, pride, and hurt in the trials he goes through to let what was a good wife slip through his fingers, and try to rescue what he can with his daughter.
In the end, what starts as almost a light-hearted farce gets very real and very instructive, and can hit a bit too close to home for any aging Peter Pans. I wouldn't call this escapist fare, but not bad viewing for a man in his late 20s early 30s, which is ironic considering it's something more akin to the lifetime channel. It's message to women is one they know - a steady man is worth marrying. Not exactly a revelation, so I would say this movie is a romantic parable for men - quite a rarity.