Blind Date

Blind Date; comedy, USA, 1987; D: Blake Edwards, S: Bruce Willis, Kim Basinger, John Larroquette, William Daniels, George Coe, Mark Blum, Phil Hartman

Walter Davis wakes up late one morning and rushes to work, where he finds out his company is planing a ceremonial dinner in honor of their new client Yakamoto. In order to bring any kind of girl to that dinner, he allows his brother Ted arrange him a blind date with the mysterious Nadia, who "becomes wild" when she drinks alcohol. Walter is charmed by her and gives her a drink, only to find out she really becomes wild, makes a mess and insults Yakamoto. Now without work, Walter drives her back to her home, but they are followed by Nadia's ex-boyfriend, the psychopathic lawyer David. In retribution, Walter goes to her party and causes havoc too, even firing at David. Arrested, he gets bailed out and defended by David himself on court. Since David forced Nadia to marry him, Walter sends her alcohol filled chocolate and she goes wild, returning back to him.

Blake Edwards has a sense for comedy, but for some reason he liked to mix high and low humor together, resulting often in uneven results. "Blind Date", one of his last films, is nowhere as good as his finest comedies like "Victor / Victoria" or "What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?", turning into a bizarre take on Hollywood's old run-of-the-mill screwball romantic comedies in which the male hero meets an unusual girl who turns his life upside down, but even though chaotic and messy at times, it's also nowhere as chaotic and messy as some of his more misguided achievements. Despite frequent morbid, forced or lascivious gags, the story has its moments thanks to the charming interaction between Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger, and some of the gags are pretty good, among the best are the sequence where Walter and Nadia are in their car and spot David who has been stalking them all evening, upon which Walter goes to his car and sends it rolling down the road, making him go run after it; or one absolutely unbelievable situation where the couple go apparently to her house, but just as they are about to ring the bell the whole house moves and gets transported away (!) by a vehicle lead by thugs. As a whole, it's a standard, slightly overlong, but amusing film that can be approved.

Grade:++