Macon writes tourist guides for a living. Following the death of their 12-year old son, his wife Sarah files for divorce. One day, Macon has to leave his dog at a pet hotel, where he becomes friends with employee Muriel. The two start a relationship, but he then finds out Muriel has a little sick son. Feeling overwhelmed, he tries to end the relationship, but Muriel convinces him to continue. When Sarah announces she wants to reconcile, Macon dumps Muriel. At a flight for Paris, he meets Muriel again, who stays in the same hotel and wants contact. Macon sends her away. When Sarah shows up, he realizes he cannot remarry her again and leaves. He takes a taxi and meets a boy who looks like his son. He stops the taxi when he accidentally spots Muriel on the street.
“The Accidental Tourist” is an intimate, quiet character drama film about a tourist guide writer who likes to travel to different places, but ironically cannot travel to different emotional states outside his life routine in his own hometown. From today’s perspective, the film seems too stiff, schematic and lukewarm at times, achieving a good quality, but barely. The main protagonist Macon is just so passive and placid the story has difficulty engaging the viewers, whereas the script lacks ingenuity. The most charming character is thus Macon’s love interest Muriel, played good by Geena Davis — the best moment is when Macon admits he is broken inside at her doorstep and wants to end their relationship, yet Muriel simply lets him inside to hug and comfort him in private; another fine one is his observation: "This odd woman helped me. She's given me another chance to decide who I am" — but even she is hindered by the underwritten role. At least three plot points are terribly contrived and banal: the sequence where the dog jumps from the stairs on Macon who steps on a laundry kart on wheels and thus falls and breaks his leg; the overlong Thanksgiving sequence of the family debating if a turkey is undercooked; and the convenient way Macon wants to reach after a chord behind a desk but only strains his back and is bedridden. All three could have been either better written or deleted altogether. Some symbolism is understood visually, such as the camera pan from Macon walking on crutches due to his broken leg up to Muriel, to show how she metaphorically became his “crutches” for his broken life following the divorce. This comes full circle near the end, when Macon simply leaves his luggage behind on the street, and his old life as well. Others fare worse, such as Muriel’s sick little son. Director Lawrence Kasdan allowed for too much of the story to go way out of hand at a running time of 120 minutes—especially since a lot of the dialogues are just an ‘empty walk’— but this is an overall nice little film.
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment