This is only the third film of Henry Jaglom's that I've seen, but he is easily now one of my favorite filmmakers. Here he demonstrates how to take a conventional plot and spin it in a madcap, wonderful direction that is always unpredictable.
The story is about two thieves traveling down the East Coast with their hidden stash and the women they pick up along the way. The guys strike us as pure losers from the beginning, so the fact that they so easily pick up pretty girls tips us off early on that something isn't quite kosher, that there has to be some sort of trade off. There is, but I won't even begin to spoil it, even though I, personally, saw it coming. (To be fair, prior to watching it I read a review that hinted at it, but it's still clear when you watch the film by itself that something is "off" about these women.) The film is still magnificent to watch even when you know what's coming because you can never guess *how* it's coming. It's full of surprises, and it's endless fun.
The dialogue and editing are so fast paced and unconventional that they almost seem like gifted exercises in improv, but I don't believe they (completely) were. There are times in the film where the story doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but there is never a time in the film when we're not enjoying it. And I bet that on my second viewing, I will see that those indirect moments actually *were* leading somewhere that may have been difficult to comprehend on a first viewing. It takes quite a splendid creative mind to make a script not only come alive in this way, but do it in a way that is just so damned entertaining.
The story is about two thieves traveling down the East Coast with their hidden stash and the women they pick up along the way. The guys strike us as pure losers from the beginning, so the fact that they so easily pick up pretty girls tips us off early on that something isn't quite kosher, that there has to be some sort of trade off. There is, but I won't even begin to spoil it, even though I, personally, saw it coming. (To be fair, prior to watching it I read a review that hinted at it, but it's still clear when you watch the film by itself that something is "off" about these women.) The film is still magnificent to watch even when you know what's coming because you can never guess *how* it's coming. It's full of surprises, and it's endless fun.
The dialogue and editing are so fast paced and unconventional that they almost seem like gifted exercises in improv, but I don't believe they (completely) were. There are times in the film where the story doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but there is never a time in the film when we're not enjoying it. And I bet that on my second viewing, I will see that those indirect moments actually *were* leading somewhere that may have been difficult to comprehend on a first viewing. It takes quite a splendid creative mind to make a script not only come alive in this way, but do it in a way that is just so damned entertaining.