Thoughts on The Big Picture

courtesy IMDB

"Look, Nick, I'm not gonna bullshit you, because it's a waste of time and then it becomes, like, that thing. *realizes he's being listened to, ostentatiously laughs* I'm not talking to you. I'll call you. *back to Nick* I'm very, very aware that you are seeing other agents. And I think it's good that you are. I mean it's healthy. But, this is the thing. If you decide to sign with me, you're gonna get more than an agent. You're gonna get three people. *holds up four fingers* You're gonna get an agent, a mother, a father, a shoulder to cry on, someone who knows this business inside and out. And if anyone ever tries to cross you, I'll grab them by the balls and squeeze 'til they're dead. Excuse me. *the waiter's returned* Keith, did you send over the torte?"

"Yes, sir."

"And-and-and ... what was his reaction?"

"Well, he seemed pleased. But beneath the surface, I detected a certain sadness."

Years ago, I read that Christopher Guest doesn't like the improvised comedies he's written, appeared in and directed to be called "mockumentaries." If I recall correctly, he thinks that applying the word "mock" implies no respect for the subject matter. Watching The Big Picture, it became apparent that a comedy so clever came with a great deal of care.

Guest directed and co-wrote Picture with Michael Varhol and Michael McKean, who costars. A non-improvised film, it's the story of Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon). In classic "movie-movie" fashion, up and coming director Nick loses and regains his integrity, his girl (Emily Longstreth), his best friend and collaborator (McKean) and his power.

Bacon is excellent as Nick, who's savvy enough to see but not avoid the traps. He's great opposite Longstreth and McKean and even better as straight man to perhaps the year's best ensemble. Almost none of them has any concept of sincerity. There's J.T. Walsh as the studio bigwig, Martin Short as the agent, Teri Hatcher as the actress and Jennifer Jason Leigh as the even more independent talent.

"... makes the point that success in Hollywood bears only a coincidental relationship to talent and can't be rationally explained."

-- Variety

Picture's wit is painless but sharp. This is a very funny film. While not a gag per second comedy akin to Airplane! or Mel Brooks' work, Picture can hold its own among the great parodies. The jokes may be obvious, like when it turns out that Gretchen (Hatcher) is practicing lines rather than affirming her love for Nick, but they're executed brilliantly. 

Guest, Varhol and McKean also pull off something that few of their peers could. They don't forget the humanity. A great movie about movies doesn't have to be an extreme experience. Think about, say, Sunset Boulevard. It's often cynical and ends tragically, but you're unmistakably watching real, albeit larger than life, people. The Big Picture is often cynical, with characters that are possibly even larger than larger than life. That doesn't take away their reality, or the fact that the happy ending is earned. 

"I want you to be my friend again."

"Nick, I was always your friend."

"No, I know. I, I mean, I wanna be your friend again."

Recommended

Thoughts:

-- Box Office: Nearly $118,000 on a $5 million budget, coming in at No. 213 for 1989. This had a "wide" release of eight theaters.

-- "Anything that Alan was involved with is dead. ... Because whoever takes over the studio doesn't want blood on their hands. They want, with all due respect, to distance themselves from the stench." The Big Picture was one of several Columbia Pictures releases that received little to no support once David Puttnam was out as studio president. I assume Alan's ouster was always scripted, but it's fun to think Guest, Varhol and McKean were altering their writing to let art imitate life.

-- Critic's Corner: "One of the smartest and funniest films of the year," wrote Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune. "The definitive and most uncannily incisive satire," Roger Ebert declared in 2006. "Plays best as a series of sketches ... (Bacon) has a real gift for comedy," according to Vincent Canby. Peter Travers rooted for the film but felt Guest and McKean lost their edge. "Venom becomes them." 

-- Hey, It's ...!: Fran Drescher, Eddie Albert, Elliott Gould, June Lockhart, Stephen Collins, Roddy McDowall, John Cleese, Bruce Kirby and Richard Belzer, to name a few.

-- Musical Moment: "The Whites of Their Eyes" is catchy and seems to deliver the movie's moral.

-- Oversharing Corner: Alice Hirson has a passing resemblance to my grandma. Mrs. Chapman's excitement about Nick's supposedly upcoming film, which he's telling a half-truth about, earned a recognition nod. I completed my city history book, but the project seems to be all but abandoned. 

-- Maybe it should be Oversharing Stadium. I promised the story of my most frustrating creative experience. Just before senior year of college, I wrote what I thought would be a charming comedy. A middle-age couple and their best friend, attending a wedding, end up sleeping together. The appeal has always been in saying something about longtime friendship, but either I wasn't the right person to write it at the time or I was trying too hard. Either way, I squandered a decent story on lousy jokes.

-- It was a five character play. I thought it would be great to have the two male leads and the two female leads alternate roles over the course of the three performances. The fourth character was the single guy's girlfriend, who was younger and only there to take abuse from the married people. The fifth character was a one-scene wonder, the drunken mother of the bride. She opened Act Two. Act One concluded with the leads hooking up, although nothing much was depicted.

-- My gimmick fell apart because I kept losing actors. One, playing the girlfriend, left shortly after the first reading. I had kept the full plot a secret during auditions, which I know now is a no-no. The actor playing the husband was brilliant but pressured by his parents to quit the show. The replacement actor couldn't get off work. We opened as a semi-staged reading, with me battling a cold and playing the husband. I scored an award just for not cancelling the show.

-- I've never been able to fully shake my idea. It could work if it was presented with something resembling honesty. I mean, it's not an honest idea. I came up with it as a teenager, imagining "what if ...?" when my parents and their best friend went to a wedding. Still, if I really tried to look at the trio as people, not characters, I might have something. I'm still proud of the poster, though. A black and white closeup of me and my costars' held hands, with the tagline about being the best of friends.

-- "How do you see music fitting in, Nick?" "Well ... I was thinking no music." "No music where?" "No music at all." "What do you mean?" "You gotta have music, Nick." "Well, you know, maybe some music here and there, just not wall to wall music." "Oh, who's talking about wall to wall music? No, no, what we're talking about are 15 or 20 good pop hits, here and there, you know, at most. Isn't that right?" "Right." "Exactly." "Well, maybe a couple of songs."

-- Sometime this week: A Dry White Season. The schedule for October is

Weekend of Oct. 6: Drugstore Cowboy

Weekend of Oct. 13: Look Who's Talking and The Fabulous Baker Boys

Weekend of Oct. 20: Fat Man and Little Boy (or 10/13 leftover)

Weekend of Oct. 27: The Bear