Director: Colin Higgins
Cast: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, Dabney Coleman
Have I Seen It Before: Never. One would be forgiven (or may be apt to forgive me) for thinking that a movie probably release to be counter-programming for a Christmas re-release of <Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)>, but I’m not sure if I ought to be forgiven for only coming around to the film after the theme became was pretty delightfully grafted on to <Deadpool 2 (2018)>.
Did I Like It: There are two films struggling for supremacy here, and unfortunately, I think that the wrong movie won the battle over the larger landscape of the movies. At its core, this is a sitcom plot that at about the midway point realizes it is a sitcom plot and comes to the conclusion that the only way to get out of the proceedings with its dignity (is that the right word?) intact is to hope people aren’t paying attention, and get out of their increasingly dubious plot by ratcheting up the fundamental sitcomy-ness to a level that a sitcom writer (even one of that era) would term the whole affair “a bit much.”
That’s the movie that keeps getting made over and over again. That’s kind of a bummer.
The movie that everyone should have been trying to re-create is just Dolly Parton. We now know her as the greatest philanthropist this side of Bruce Wayne, and apparently she’s notably sung some music, but the fact that we never really gave Parton a chance as a film star. Sure, she had The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) but then Rhinestone (1984) came around, and everybody forgot to blame Stallone for that film’s problems. Here, she is so guileless and likable, by all accounts she should have had the career of Sly, Burt, Fonda, and Tomlin all put together. I’m sure she’s not bothered by the fact that she could have meant more to the movies, but we are poorer for it.