Director: John Patrick Shanley
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack
Have I Seen it Before: Yes. Although I can’t remember how it all ends, for some reason. That’s probably the best way to rediscover a film, now that I think about it.
Did I Like It: It’s certainly a charmingly weird film, I cannot deny it that. Starting with frames filled with dream-like production design from Bo Welch—hinting at the work he would do in a few years in Batman Returns (1992)—this world is not our own, and yet there are any number of moments that feel distressingly real, although most of those have to do with the horrifying drudgery of Joe’s (Hanks, being imminently Hanksy, even in a slightly off-beat milieu) job.
The secret weapon for the film is Meg Ryan, surprisingly enough. While she has always been a charming presence on film, she’s always felt more like a movie star. Here, she fully embraces the weird on display and very nearly disappears behind two distinct characters, before giving the people who showed up on date night the Meg Ryan we all know with her third character in the film. So few leading ladies are given the opportunity to to flex their craft, it’s one of the film’s stronger elements.
The one element about which I think I might truly bring myself to complain about the film is that the ending is something of an anti-climax. The volcano spits both the leads out, they figure out that Joe hasn’t been dying this whole time, and they sail off into the sunset. That may be why I can’t remember the ending; there isn’t much of one. It is a minor complaint, but might help to explain why the film never quite seeped into our collective thoughts the ways other films with this degree of talent have.