I'm not sure how it came to this. I started out to write a review of the surfing video "Surfing For Life", which recently aired on PBS here in the United States, and is available on video worldwide. It's another beautiful summer June day here, with a south swell promised for California by the weekend, and just enough of a bump coming in to keep one satisfied. I should have been on things, but I wasn't. This is the kind of day that's so full of promise you can't stop the smile.
So rather than doing what I was supposed to do, let's review a movie which is perhaps a decade old at this point, and considered the most dismal commercial failure to date for mega-stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The usual vibe is that if something is a commercial failure, it is also an artistic one. This is understandable in the "entertainment industry", where making money is the most honored art. The thing is, this film is great...
It isn't full of action, there isn't any nudity or foul language, everybody is fairly nice, and the soundtrack won't have you jumping. One of the best descriptions, gleaned off an internet fan site, is that of a "Tim Burton movie without the dark undertones", if you get the drift. This is a happy flick. It pre-dates "Sleepless In Seattle" and "You've Got Mail". It has a screenplay by John Patrick Shanley, who wrote "Moonstruck" and "Congo". Since it has a Shanley screenplay, it also has brilliant dialog. It has a committment to being an individual and going your own way which is seldom seen.
So maybe you feed on punk-rockin surf vids and only venture to the movies to see monster action films? Trust me on this - rent the video or DVD for a night in with the girlfriend or wife. You can't go wrong, you'll score major points, and you might enjoy it. Relax a little; it's summer. |
