Wick's Review

Summary - Very Good 3.5

Matt Dillon’s star turn elevates charmingly amusing nostalgia into a memorable movie. Fortunately, Dillon’s not alone in lending star power to what ultimately feels like a high quality Movie-of-the-Week. Richard Crenna, Jessica Walter and Hector Elizondo help round out the terrific cast.

Set in the Mad Men milieu of early 60s metro New York, the movie nicely mines a slightly earthy inner-city toughness that it then juxtaposes with Long Island suburban self-absorption. Garry Marshall does this sort of thing as well as any commercially focused writer-director out there, giving the entire production a polish that makes the ride a smooth one.

Acting - Very Good 3.5

Matt Dillon seemed the second coming of Marlon Brando in his first few movies. Here he demonstrated something akin to Tom Cruise’s likability, showing he could do light as well as heavy. This presaged his full-on comedy success in There’s Something About Mary a decade or so later.

The other major players:

• Richard Crenna’s half-century career wasn’t an accident, as his meaty performance as the self-obsessed big shot here shows.
• Jessica Walter’s 60 year career is also well deserved, as her supremely bitchy wife-of-the-big-shot here shows.
• Hector Elizondo, another half-century legend and a staple in Garry Marshall movies like Pretty Woman, delivers a richly evocative performance as a blue collar dad.

Then there are the bit players, several of whom are notable:

• Introducing Janet Jones says the credits: as fresh faced a starlet as the silver screen could hope to see. She did well enough here to ultimately win a Gretzky.
• Marisa Tomei and John Turturro have bit parts.
• Fisher Stevens sinks his teeth into the part of rich kid Long Islander.

Film - Very Good 3.5

Garry Marshall made The Flamingo Kid just as his monumental run executive producing Happy Days had ended. Thus the film feels like an extenuation of ABC’s rose-colored nostalgia show, even though the film is set in the early 60s and not the 50s. Want further proof? The studio behind it is ABC Motion Pictures.

Edge - Tame 1.4

Famously, the first movie to ever receive a PG-13. Why? Seems like PG should be more than enough given how tame it is.

Reality - Glib 1.1

The movie’s view of business and wealth fits right in the Hollywood Lefty tradition of assuming that it’s all about inside knowledge and trickery.

1 Comment

• Nikhil Gupte Sep 1, 2010 11:59PM

  Regarding Wick’s Review
  Great!

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