(USA 1998)
Rated R
Starring:
Drew Barrymore, Luke Wilson, Jake Busey, Catherine
O'Hara
Director: Dean Parisot
Writing credits: Vince Gilligan
Warner Brothers * 93 minutes
The convoluted plot as scripted by Vince Gilligan involves Drew Barrymore, boasting the worlds greatest spiral perm, as fast food drive-up waitress Sally, who is hugely pregnant by her older (and married) lover, whose wife (Catherine O'Hara) has found out about his infidelity and orders her two sons by a previous marriage to scare the philanderer. Got it? The two sons (played by Jake Busey as Beavis to Luke Wilson's Butt-Head), aviators in the army reserve, use a military helicopter to accomplish the task, and the poor schmuck dies of a heart attack in the process. Fearful that the burger waitress has heard the attack on her drive-up window headphones, the "good" brother, Dorian (Wilson), lands a job in the burger joint to find out what she knows. They fall in love in Lamaze class, and the plot descends into a maze of convoluted relationships and silly situations, with a hilarious ending soliloquy as Dorian attempts to explain to his newborn half-brother/stepson the nature of their blood tie.
The film is yet another breakthrough role for Barrymore, who proves that adorableness need not be something that makes you want to locate the nearest AK-47. Sporting the best perm in America in a bright red color that makes her Betty Boop face even more retro, she looks like a slacker Shirley Temple. She and real-life sweetie Luke Wilson gaze adoringly at each other and seem to be sharing some sort of in-joke throughout the picture. Wilson brings a sweet doofusness to Dorian, and I'd be interested in seeing him play someone not so dim. Catherine O'Hara hasn't been this wired since BEETLEJUICE. Jake Busey, in the malevolent Kiefer Sutherland-type role, fares less well as the brother that mother O'Hara loved "only about two inches less."
The film is yet another breakthrough role for Barrymore, who proves that adorableness need not be something that makes you want to locate the nearest AK-47. Sporting the best perm in America in a bright red color that makes her Betty Boop face even more retro, she looks like a slacker Shirley Temple. She and real-life sweetie Luke Wilson gaze adoringly at each other and seem to be sharing some sort of in-joke throughout the picture. Wilson brings a sweet doofusness to Dorian, and I'd be interested in seeing him play someone not so dim. Catherine O'Hara hasn't been this wired since BEETLEJUICE. Jake Busey, in the malevolent Kiefer Sutherland-type role, fares less well as the brother that mother O'Hara loved "only about two inches less."
- Jill Cozzi
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