(Double Dose is two films from the same director, writer or star...or genre or theme...tilte...whatever...pretty simple. Today: it's the same film, but not)
About Last Night... (1986, d. Edward Zwick - hollywoodsuite)
About Last Night (2014, d. Steve Pink - hollywoodsuite)
About Last Night... started life as a play in the 1970's titled Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet. Mamet tried, and failed, to deliver an acceptable screenplay of the play and eventually Tim Kazurinski and Denise Declue crafted the script that became the 1986 Ed Zwick picture.
Danny is the beautiful nice guy with his piercing blue eyes, square jaw, defined cheekbones, pretty smile and a thick mop of tussled hair. Danny doesn't really give back on what Bernie shells out, but it's clear he revels in these stories like Bernie is his mentor. So when Danny meets Debbie (Demi Moore) and is instantly smitten, all Bernie can say, repeatedly is basically how much monogamy sucks and that Danny is p-whipped. Bernie is the fucking worst. He's supposed to be the comic relief, but he's insufferable.
Hollywood tradition would infer that the film be told primarily from Danny's perspective, but, no doubt in large part thanks to Declue's involvement, Debbie is an equal protagonist here (well, almost, as this here review will wind up lopsiding to more of Danny's side of the script) and along with her cynical, disgruntled roommate Joan (Elizabeth Perkins) they are two exceptionally well-defined characters that feel much more lifelike than Danny or Bernie.
Debbie and Danny are infatuated with one another, and start spending all their free time together (and sometimes bunking off work too). They fuck a lot, and there are a lot of sex scenes which are quite tastefully done and not leering in the slightest. The camera is as enamoured with Lowe as it is with Moore, if not more so (or Moore-less). Lowe is the prettiest creature in this film, without a doubt.
Soon Debbie and Danny are moving in together despite the lamentations and protestations of Joan and Bernie. Debbie feels a little regret and confuses things with Danny, so he starts treating her like a roommate. She soon sees the error of her ways and says to Danny that she wants to know him, to get close, and Danny seems relieved. They confess their love for one another (I dunno...shouldn't that come before moving in together?) and things seem to go fine, except for Danny is severely unhappy with work, especially since his manager at the restaurant supply company tells him he has to cut off the struggling diner whose owner Danny is friends with. This triggers a quarter-life crisis in Danny and he shuts down, becoming somewhat bitter and rather than talking through his feelings he just shuts Debbie out. She can't figure out what's going on with him. I was expecting an '80's romcom to have Debbie feels like she's done something wrong, to try and fix things even though it's not her fault, but she never acts that way. Moore's performance and the script's deft touch really do give her the awareness that she's not at fault in any particular way, except maybe for rushing into things too quickly.
Things continue to fall apart, slowly, over months. Eventually they come to a head at a New Year's party, and they break up. Debbie is upset for a while, then starts dating again, and just tries to move on. Danny, filled with Bernie's godawful advice, tries to play the field but finds he's not into one-night stands and misses what he had with Debbie. He tries to connect with her, but she's having none of it (because she's a fully realized character and not a cinematic cliche). Danny goes full toxic male and starts stalking her. Really. But she tells him off, again, and he drops it, tries to move on, but can't.
He quits his job and refurbishes the jalopy diner because, bafflingly, he's always wanted to have his own restaurant (even though we never see him cook a damn thing). With his professional life in place, he's finally happy, and when he sees Debbie again, she can tell he's different. He admits that things went awry because of him, but without really discussing any specifics on what he did wrong or how he could have behaved otherwise. Next to Bernie, it's the fatal flaw of this film that Danny, nor any other character, verbalizes the one thing Danny needed to do: communicate. Oh and drop Bernie as a friend.
Danny's behaviour shifts from being a doe-eyed dope in love at the film's start to being resentful and bitter, but neither he, nor Debbie, nor this film seem to understand why, and it's a pretty sharp turn. It could absolutely be worse, in that it could *all* have been about being "tied down" or "playing house" like Bernie keeps suggesting. It's definitely not only that, or even mostly that, although never labelling what it is means that the reunion at the film's finale feels like it's possibly doomed to fail again.
.jpg)
Rather than have Danny dream of owning a restaurant, here Danny has ties to a bar owned by his late father's best friend (played by Christopher McDonald). When Danny has to cut off the bar's restaurant supplies, it cuts Danny to the core in a much more meaningful way. When Danny says he hates his job, it's that of a guy who has been working in the corporate structure for too long and *needs* to get out, rather than Lowe's Danny who is early in his working career and still trying to find what fits. Danny needing a job and working behind his friend's bar only serves to further sink his emotional state in a meaningful way that Bryant's Debbie tries to make the best of, but is rebuffed adding further tension between them. Again, Debbie not doing anything wrong, but Danny shutting her out of his emotional situation. In the '86 version, Danny goes back to work at the restaurant supply company, only to quit again after the break-up. It's a less effective career journey for the character. I enjoy in both cases that Debbie is the more successful of the pair. It's never a direct point of contention in either case, surprisingly.
In this 2014 version, it's shockingly Bernie who breaks down for Danny what makes relationships work. But then, Kevin Hart's Bernie is a very different character than Belushi's. Where Belushi's take is full tilt toxic masculinity, where anyone offended by him gets a "you can't take a joke?" (You just know he's said a million times in his life "you can't say anything anymore.") Hart's Bernie is just a loudmouth, he likes to talk and talk, and he says outrageous things, but, by and large, they're not full of chauvinism and Hart's delivery is much more humourous.
The biggest worry in the '86 version was that the film was angling to fix Bernie and Joan up. Any scene with the two of them together was full of spite and venom towards each other. Joan doesn't fall into conventional beauty standards (Perkins is so attractive though) and she's doesn't put up with Bernie's sleaziness, so Bernie is nothing but derogatory towards her. But the conventionally Hollywood wisdom is "opposites attract" and that pairing up the feuding best friend characters is funny. Mercifully it never, ever happens, and, frankly, by the end of the film, the two can still barely tolerate the presence of the other. So imagine my surprise when the 2014 version opens with Bernie and Regina Hall's Joan already dating. In fact, they introduce Debbie and Danny together.
I was worried that if Hart's Bernie was going to be so much like Belushi's that it would ruin the character of Joan. But Hall's Joan is still loud, angry and doesn't put up with shit. She is a match for this version of Bernie...well, actually, his better. Hall goes toe-to-toe comedically with Hart, and their pairing is the film's constant highlight. Their sexual relationship is ridiculous, and these two performers give everything into it. A mid-credits outtake finds Hall and Hart verbally sparring back and forth until Hall drops a nugget that cracks Hart up to the point where he can barely breathe.
In nearly every respect the remake is a superior film. It is funnier, sharper, more insightful, and more logical. It's only in Moore's performance where the '86 film has the advantage. Bryant is really good, but Moore's Debbie had a snarky spark that Bryant's is missing. Both pairings of Debbies and Dannys are hot looking couples, and in both cases the chemistry works very well until its not supposed to. Early and Bryant's couple are shot with more steaminess but still not enough for my liking. I think, in both cases, we should feel the heat of this couple, and at best it's hot tap water.
Some other things the remake improves upon:
- Danny's ex-girlfirend is a much bigger threat. In this version the film opens with Danny still reeling from the break up a year later (in the '86 version, Danny's hasn't had a serious relationship before, and it shows). As well, Danny's ex-girlfriend is Paula Patton, so, you know, I get it. But also once we meet Patton, who turns up while Debbie is away, we get why Danny didn't really learn how to be in a good relationship. She is a force, and everything is her way. She also tries to seduce Danny and it's a Herculean effort of resistance. In the '86 version, when Debbie and Danny break up he says he never cheated, to which Debbie sarcastically replies "well, let's give the boy a medal! I didn't realize it was such a sacrifice." But when Ealy's Danny says it, well, having seen Patton lock her target on him...he does kind of deserve a prize.
- Each film has a very minor pregnancy scare, and I like how each film handles it. They both handle it basically the same, with Danny being both shocked and relieved but also checking in with Debbie to see how she feels. She is also relieved but in the remake, given their mid/late-30's ages there's more nuance to it all. So moments later, when they're out on the street, Debbie fixates on a puppy from a street side rescue/adoption. She says they're at least ready for a dog, but Danny's not so sure. When he screws up Thanksgiving, he gets her the dog (named Pachino). The dog quickly becomes Danny's dog. I enjoyed how the film would incorporate the dog realistically into their lives (with Danny saying he needs to walk the dog first before doing something). Pachino starts off as a little terrier mutt then seems to blossom a couple seasons later into a weird massive doodle thing...it's the most unbelievable part of the film.
- In the remake, Danny and Debbie have more friends than just Bernie and Joan, which plays better in the scenes when they're out partying or Thanksgiving dinner being more than just the four of them.
- Hart and Hall really set the rhythm and timing of the comedy in this one, where it's sometimes easy to forget the original is intended to be funny. So it is weird when the remake reuses whole lines from the original that sometimes don't even fit in context or don't fit the character's voices...I guess they're just good lines that are too good not to use (I have to wonder how much of that is retained from Mamet's play). It's also very, very weird when Ealy and Bryant are watching the original on TV and commenting on how much they love it. It's cute but also breaks my continuity-minded brain.
No comments:
Post a Comment