The last time that I saw this was years ago, and I thought that I was too young to understand the themes of this movie. I just recently seen this movie again and now I realize that I wasn't naive, the movie was just bad.
Here's a breakdown of the story. John Cassavetes plays Phillup Dimitrius, an emotionally and spiritually burned-out casino designer for a rich Greek industrialist. Phillup feels empty inside because he marriage is crumbling from his wifes' longing for her old acting carrier, he's lost touch with his teenage daughter and can't stand his bosses health-ailing temper and brown-nosing cronies. To top things off, his two unhappy worlds come together in the worst way, when he finds out that his wife (Gena Rowlands) cheating with his boss.
Phillup decides to make a clean break from every (and I mean everything) by going off to the remote islands of Greece. He then goes crazy in a different way. Nothing could be better for Phil. He's indulgently happy with his daughter and new Gypsy-like new girlfriend (Susan Sarandon). Things are fine for him until his wife, along with Phil's old boss come in search of Phil ,to bring Phils' daughter Miranda (played by brat packer Molly Ringwald) home to New York.
I could not get over how boring this film is. The strange thing is this. This film was made twenty years ago. It had such potential for being a ground-breaking film. It told it's story out of continuity. This narrative aspect was what helped films like Pulp Fiction, Out of Sight and Memento become monster hits. The film also dealt with the theme of a successful businessman feeling empty inside, a theme used in films like Fight Club, American Beauty and Office Space. The film also had the early performances of Molly Ringwald and Susan Sarandon. The two of them get into a charming rendition of "Why do Fools Fall in Love".
None of these things can save this movie because they are all used in the most clumsy and boring way. The conversations in this film is just constant banter of Phil bickering with all of his associations. It takes far too long to get past the exposition to even hold ones interest. When the gang get to Greece the story goes from boring to drown-myself-in-the-lake boring. Phil gets far too self-indulgent to even make sence.
The climax of this film, the headlining storm, comes and goes. It practacly contributes nothing to the plot. There's even a usless scene where Phil trys to come off as if he's come to some kind of spiritual wisdom, by killing a goat and just comes off as being more arrogant and mentally disturbed.
The film tries to to add a sub-plot of Miranda forming a romance with the son of Phils' boss, played by Sam Robards. Sadly his presence is a electrifying as watching paint dry. Their relationship is even more predictable and tediously useless.
The only thing that keeps me from screaming is complete anguish and boredom is the winning performance of the late-great Raul Julia. Julia plays the local hermit Kalibanos. His character adds the only amount of scale to the story. He foils Cassavete wonderfully. He's crazy, but in the good way. He's eccentric. He gives the film little life by playing the claranette, singing to his goats and making advances to Miranda with his trinatron. This film would have been better if it got rid of half of the exposition, all of the useless banter between Phil and his wife and put more focus on Phil's relationship with Kalibanos. Sadly, the film overlooks this more entertaining plot-point.
To sum up, unless your going to use your DVD to jump to the moments with Raul Julia, don't bother wasting your time with this film.
Here's a breakdown of the story. John Cassavetes plays Phillup Dimitrius, an emotionally and spiritually burned-out casino designer for a rich Greek industrialist. Phillup feels empty inside because he marriage is crumbling from his wifes' longing for her old acting carrier, he's lost touch with his teenage daughter and can't stand his bosses health-ailing temper and brown-nosing cronies. To top things off, his two unhappy worlds come together in the worst way, when he finds out that his wife (Gena Rowlands) cheating with his boss.
Phillup decides to make a clean break from every (and I mean everything) by going off to the remote islands of Greece. He then goes crazy in a different way. Nothing could be better for Phil. He's indulgently happy with his daughter and new Gypsy-like new girlfriend (Susan Sarandon). Things are fine for him until his wife, along with Phil's old boss come in search of Phil ,to bring Phils' daughter Miranda (played by brat packer Molly Ringwald) home to New York.
I could not get over how boring this film is. The strange thing is this. This film was made twenty years ago. It had such potential for being a ground-breaking film. It told it's story out of continuity. This narrative aspect was what helped films like Pulp Fiction, Out of Sight and Memento become monster hits. The film also dealt with the theme of a successful businessman feeling empty inside, a theme used in films like Fight Club, American Beauty and Office Space. The film also had the early performances of Molly Ringwald and Susan Sarandon. The two of them get into a charming rendition of "Why do Fools Fall in Love".
None of these things can save this movie because they are all used in the most clumsy and boring way. The conversations in this film is just constant banter of Phil bickering with all of his associations. It takes far too long to get past the exposition to even hold ones interest. When the gang get to Greece the story goes from boring to drown-myself-in-the-lake boring. Phil gets far too self-indulgent to even make sence.
The climax of this film, the headlining storm, comes and goes. It practacly contributes nothing to the plot. There's even a usless scene where Phil trys to come off as if he's come to some kind of spiritual wisdom, by killing a goat and just comes off as being more arrogant and mentally disturbed.
The film tries to to add a sub-plot of Miranda forming a romance with the son of Phils' boss, played by Sam Robards. Sadly his presence is a electrifying as watching paint dry. Their relationship is even more predictable and tediously useless.
The only thing that keeps me from screaming is complete anguish and boredom is the winning performance of the late-great Raul Julia. Julia plays the local hermit Kalibanos. His character adds the only amount of scale to the story. He foils Cassavete wonderfully. He's crazy, but in the good way. He's eccentric. He gives the film little life by playing the claranette, singing to his goats and making advances to Miranda with his trinatron. This film would have been better if it got rid of half of the exposition, all of the useless banter between Phil and his wife and put more focus on Phil's relationship with Kalibanos. Sadly, the film overlooks this more entertaining plot-point.
To sum up, unless your going to use your DVD to jump to the moments with Raul Julia, don't bother wasting your time with this film.