Lady in White (1988), Married to the Mob (1988)

So let's take a quick look at 1988 for a moment, since both of tonight's movies and several recent ones have all been from that year. Wikipedia tells us that the top grossing movies were, in order:

Rain Man
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Coming to America
Big
Twins
Crocodile Dundee II
Die Hard
Naked Gun
Cocktail
Beetlejuice

Rain Man won the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as a number of other awards. I don't think history has been particularly kind to Rain Man, and if today's viewers and critics were to re-vote, I bet the new pick would be something more like Midnight Run or Bull Durham or even Die Hard. Rain Man was classic, vintage Oscar bait, and the origin for the famous "going full retard" joke from Tropic Thunder. 

All that said, 1988 was a pretty weak year. I was eight years old when it was actually happening, and I can tell you first hand that Roger Rabbit and Beetlejuice were freaking sensations - everyone I knew saw them, sometimes twice. Die Hard also, if you could find a parent lenient enough to let you watch it (my dad was one). My sister worships Twins, and I think everyone agrees Big is a real treat. But in that Top 10 Grossing list, at least two - Cocktail and Crocodile Dundee II - are real losers. No offense to fans of early Cruise, but Cocktail is pretty weak and really memorable only as a cultural icon rather than as a good movie. Meanwhile, Dundee II is a shadow of the original. 

I guess it's difficult to really get into why I feel '88 was a weak year without a sprawling list of movies I think are good or bad. After all it's a feeling, not a fact. So rather than trying to justify a feeling, let me offer some proof: The Lady in White (1988). Which sucks.

To be fair to the movie (at least as fair as I'm going to get), it's designed for kids and not adults. Some kids movies can hold up both ways (like Roger Rabbit), and some cannot. The Lady in White does not. It's about a kid who witnesses a ghost, and that ghost (as ghosts are wont to do) goes ahead and reenacts a murder. Then the kid has to put clues together and solve the murder, including catching the still-on-the-loose killer. 

The kid here is played by Luke Haas, who I liked in The Witness and disliked in Solarbabies. He's OK here, I guess, but the movie has some major flaws (again, for an adult). The music is horrible and the quintessential "kid movie" soundtrack where dramatic scenes are immediately followed by jaunty playful music that undercut the tension. Or, I suppose, help small kids loosen up after the scary parts. 

I figured out who the killer was in the first 20 minutes or so of the movie. Not a good sign, since the film has nothing left to offer beyond cheap "scary" effects for kids. Ooooh! Katherine Helmond is floating right at me with her arms outstretched! BOOOOO!!!! I found the neighbor who gave out toothpaste on Halloween more terrifying.

Also, it's surprising how the movie absolutely has nothing to say about a killer who is a child predator - you'd think the cops or someone would cover that angle with a little extra outrage, but it seems like they wanted to spare the children watching EVERY real frightening element, including how horrible the villain actually is. 

It also lost a lot of money. Wikipedia says it cost 4.7 mil to make and made back 1.7 mil - ouch. Seems like everyone was out seeing Who Framed Roger Rabbit? instead, like I was. So, long (ghost) story short: not scary, not clever, meant for very very small children, not worth your time unless you are writing a blog where you have to watch it to maintain credibility. 

Married to the Mob (1988), on the other hand, is actually good. Very good. It's fairly funny, well directed, and has decent comedic performances by a number of respected actors (Michelle Pfeiffer NOT being a mannequin! Alec Baldwin being Alec Baldwin! Joan Cusack! Matthew Modine! Oliver Platt! Dean Stockwell, as disturbing as ever!).

It's a comedy about a woman who spends the first part of her life insulated by a married life in a Mafia-entrenched Italian family. Suddenly she is thrust out into the Real World which she has been craving more and more, and forced to fend for herself. However (there's always a however), the mob isn't quite done with her yet. That's the basic idea, it's simple yet effective, and Michelle Pfeiffer is a real charmer here. I am very touch-and-go on her in general, and '88 was an odd year - your average shrub would have turned in the same performance as she did in Tequila Sunrise, but she is irreplaceable in Married to the Mob. 

This movie really drips 1980s from every pore. The hair, the bright colors everywhere, the language, the attitudes, the way NYC looks, the film grain, everything. This movie is the answer to the question"what if GoodFellas was a domestic farce." 

Some interesting factoids: Dean Stockwell stayed in character the entire time on set. Of course he did, that disturbing bastard. He will forever be Ben from Blue Velvet to me, lip-synching "Candy Colored Clown" and using a shop light as a mic. Another: Matthew Modine read the script and originally didn't realize it was a comedy! Perhaps because he was still traumatized from filming Full Metal Jacket. Yet another: numerous actors from this comedy appear in other Jonathan Demme films, like Silence of the Lambs. 

The movie did well, and doubled its money - cost $10 mil, made $20 mil. Not bad. Another interesting divide, though: critics loved it (91% on Rotton Tomatoes) but the average score on IMDB is only 6/10. Go figure.