Mermaids (1990)

Director: Richard Benjamin

Cast: Cher, Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder, Christina Ricci

Have I Seen it Before: Never. It’s been one of those movies which Lora counted as her favorite and put an APB on picking it up if I ever found it on one of my prolonged DVD hunts. Coming up short, I eventually caved and ordered off of Amazon. Not how I normally like to procure my movies—there is something in the hunt I always enjoy—but here we are.

Did I Like It: There are some comedies which are powered entirely by how we feel about spending time with the characters. The story is meaningless, basically, but if we like the characters, everything works out okay for us the audience.

Here is the plot of Mermaids: A single woman and her two daughters move to a new town. The oldest becomes infatuated with a local boy, and kisses him. Because of this, the younger child falls into water and is injured. Everyone survives.

Not much, right? And that’s compounded by the fact that the majority of that synopsis takes place in the last thirty minutes or so, and doesn’t include Lou (Hoskins), one of the lead… because he has very little impact on the film itself. But the characters are quirky enough, and likable enough, and performed well enough, and there’s more than a few deep, sustained belly laughs in the film (“We’re Jewish…”) that everything works out okay for me. I enjoyed my time with them, and in all honesty, I screened the film about a week ago, and I haven’t been able to get Jimmy Soul out of my head most of the time. That has to count for something, right?

But one thing that continues to bug me, aside from parsing out Jimmy Soul’s lyrics. Why the hell is film called Mermaids? I mean, yes, I get Cher’s costume… And the fact that Christina Ricci is intermittently a good swimmer… But aside from that? Winona Ryder is pointedly un-Mermaid, and it feels like she is the main character.

Maybe someone else can explain it to me real slow.

My Favorite Year (1982)

Director: Richard Benjamin

Cast: Peter O’Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Joseph Bologna, Jessica Harper

Have I Seen it Before: Yes, ages ago. I don’t know why it hasn’t been an absolute staple of my life. I had intentions to run it in the background while I got some work done, and now I’m just sitting here unable to take my eyes away from it all.

Did I Like It: I think that last paragraph tells you quite a bit. I’ve been having a reaction to a number of comedy films lately where the story registers not at all with me. Thus, I’m left only with a feeling for the characters and setting, and, you know, actual laughs. More than a few comedies still elicit a positive reaction from me, even if is increasingly feeling like something is missing.

I’m more than a little pleased to report that this film fires splendidly on all three fronts. I would love to be among the writing staffs of one of the old live comedy shows, so there’s not a moment during the hour and a half run time where I feel bored. The laughs are plentiful, with plenty of one-liners abounding and two physical comedians in O’Toole and Linn-Baker* working their best magic.

And this is the best part: the plot actually works and never lets up on the tension until the end. Its easy to see where this film provided the inspirational backbone of what eventually became 30 Rock. The best that show had to offer was perfectly contained comic tension machines, and that show owes this movie a great debt. My head canon? They take place in the same universe.

*Say what you will about Perfect Strangers—Linn-Baker’s main claim to fame—but both he and Bronson Pinchot knew what they were doing when slapstick was the order of the day.