Synopsis
Goldie Hawn plays Suzette, aging groupie. Fired from her bartending job, she decamps fromLA for Phoenix, there to track down old pal Vinnie (Susan Sarandon), who has, of course,morphed from party girl to Mrs. Establishment. Along the way, Hawn picks up neurotic writerGeoffrey Rush. (A screwed up writer who is sexually devoured by a hot babe? Could this be thecreation of a male writer?) Hawn proceeds to cure everybody of uptightness. Gosh, aren’t theBoomers fascinating? They…can weep about growing older AND remain eternally young at thesame time. If you find the mere fact of hitting middle-age cause for sympathy, then you’ll lovethis. If you wish the Boomers would climb out of their collective navel, then you’ll want to shooteveryone in sight. The ending, too, is mawkish, right down to the sick-making valedictorianspeech. All of this said, I have to say that Hawn’s performance is very impressive. Utterlybanished is that squeaky voice, and her tough-but-sweet character is one I found myselfresponding too despite deep resistance.
Audio
The sound is first-class. Crisp and clear, it also has a strong and effective surround mix: greatleft-right separation, good’n’loud music, and the surround environment is amazing. Nary anopportunity is passed up on the FX front — even lawn sprinklers make their presence known. Onefly in the ointment: the voices aren’t always perfectly clear or free of distortion.
Video
The blacks are solid and the flesh tones are accurate. The contrasts, however, could be a bitstronger, both in night interior and day exterior scenes. The image isn’t quite as sharp as it couldbe, as well. The film comes in both 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 fullscreenformats.
Special Features
The main extra is a commentary by writer/director Bob Dolman, and is present on both thewidescreen and fullscreen sides of the disk. His rather dry, shot-by-shot examination only makesfull sense if you listen to it with the film in widescreen mode, since he talks about the framecompositions a few times. The other extras are minimal: blooper real, trailer and Bend it LikeBekham trailer (on the widescreen side) and standard promo featurette on the fullscreenside.
Closing Thoughts
Obviously, I have problems with the very premise of the film. The execution, however, ispretty decent.
Special Features List
- Director’s Commentary
- Featurette
- Blooper Reel
- Trailers
