Thoughts on The Accidental Tourist

 

via Giphy/Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

*Macon Leary (William Hurt), watching home shopping on TV with dog Edward, gets a unexpected call from Muriel Pritchett (Geena Davis). She learns that Edward shows hostility when Macon tries leaving.*
"He ought to be trained. Tell you what: maybe I could just come around and discuss it."
"(clearly uncomfortable) Well, I don't really think --"
"Or you could come to my place. I'd fix you supper. *Macon is even more uncomfortable* Macon, what do you say?"
"I think for now I'll just try to manage on my own."
"Well, I can understand that. Believe me, I've been through that stage. So what I'll do is, I'll wait for you to get in touch."
"Yes. That would be good. Goodbye."
"I don't want to be pushy --"
*Macon hangs up the phone and goes back to watching TV.*

Six days into The Women of 1988 and we get our first flick defined by its leading man. The Accidental Tourist is unmistakably a William Hurt vehicle the way Gorillas in the Mist was for Sigourney Weaver. When you think of actors playing emotionally withdrawn WASPy Boomers, William has got to be pretty high on that list, right? Tourist is told from Macon's perspective, that of a man who prioritizes ease and lack of attachments. It's unclear if that's exactly why Muriel is, to borrow a phrase from Transmixed Geomancy, all over him like a prostitute who has children to send to college (or elementary school, in this case). Perhaps she wants to be the irresistible force disrupting an immovable object.

Lawrence Kasdan directed and co-wrote Tourist, based on Anne Tyler's novel. Frank Galati, playwright and stage director, is the movie's other writer. Critics were split on how well the men did. "The kind of literary adaptation that forgets that films have a language of their own," Janet Maslin wrote. "The filmmakers have reinvented the same story in their own terms," according to Roger Ebert. Anyway, in print or on screen, it's the story of two eccentrics falling in love. Rather, it's Muriel courting the hell out of Macon until he's as love struck as she is. There's an estranged wife (Kathleen Turner as Sarah), classism and Macon's unresolved grief over losing his murdered son, but it's no surprise that they all end up neatly handled.

"Just tell me this -- do you picture us getting married sometime? I mean, when your divorce comes through?"

"Muriel, marriage is ... I don't know."

"You don't, do you? You don't know what you want. One minute you like me, and the next you don't. One minute you're ashamed to be seen with me and the next you think I'm the best thing that ever happened to you. You think you can just go along like this, no plans. Maybe tomorrow you'll be here, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll just go on back to Sarah."

"All I'm saying is ..."

"All I'm saying is, take care what you promise my son. Don't go making him any promises you don't intend to keep."

"But I just want him to learn how to subtract!"

Davis won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Tourist's lone acting nominee. Who knows? Maybe Oscar voters didn't want a fourth straight year of Hurt among the Best Actor contenders. Anyway, in my research, I discovered more love for Turner and especially Amy Wright. Rose Leary (Wright) finds love with Macon's publisher Julian (Bill Pullman), ultimately becoming his wife while continuing to share the family home with brothers Porter (David Ogden Stiers) and Charles (Ed Begley Jr.). Rose and Julian's story is sweet, especially when Julian decides to try the Thanksgiving turkey Rose ineptly cooked, but it also feels like there should have been more of a button. Sarah telling Macon that everything worked out doesn't cut it.

Tourist is set in Baltimore and during scenes in Muriel's working class neighborhood, I'd start wondering how John Waters would have handled the material. On the other end of the spectrum, Garry Marshall came to mind during scenes with the Leary siblings, or when Muriel and Sarah are both guests at Rose and Julian's wedding. I'm quite sure Waters, Marshall or any other director would have actually filmed the scene where Muriel and Sarah run into each other in Paris (which Sarah mentions while talking to Macon). It's not that I didn't like Tourist. I was genuinely moved at the end. But I also thought that it's ultimately a success for Hurt and Kasdan, not Turner or Davis.

"You know, Macon, the trouble with you is --" 

"Sarah, look, don't even start. By God, if that doesn't sum up everything that's wrong with being married. 'Macon, the trouble with you is ...' 'I know you better than you know yourself, Macon.' 

"The trouble with you is, you don't believe in people opening up. You think everyone should stay in their own little sealed package.

"Okay, let's say that that's true. Let's say for now that you do know what the trouble with me is, that nothing that I might feel could surprise you, and that the reason that I don't want to hear about this specific thing is that I can't open up! If we agree on all that, can we drop it?!"

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:
-- "Next time, I'll stay longer and talk. That's a promise."

-- Box Office: Grossing $32.6 million on an unknown budget, this opened wide at No. 3.

-- Awards Watch: Besides Davis' Oscar win, Tourist also received nominations for Best Picture, its screenplay and John Williams' score. The movie and its music were Golden Globe nominees and the screenplay was nominated for a BAFTA.

-- Critic's Corner, the women: Geena "tries hard but is sandbagged by her role," Maslin felt. Rita Kempley said "Geena Davis is the true star (compared to Turner), superb," Rita Kempley wrote. Variety opined that "Turner is equally compelling and sympathetic throughout."

-- Several women were in the running for Muriel, according to IMDB. Melanie Griffith was vetoed by Kasdan, Meg Tilly and Ellen Barkin auditioned and Karen Black was considered. My copy of Inside Oscar says Mary Steenburgen, Laura Dern, Amy Madigan and JoBeth Williams read with Hurt. With the exception of Dern, they might have all auditioned for both Muriel and Sarah.

-- "One-hundred-forty degrees? Certain death. What is she thinking?" "Two quarts of stuffing. I heard her say so. Two quarts of teeming, swarming bacteria." "Is this the Thanksgiving we all die?"

-- Hey, It's 1988!: Muriel reads the January edition of Cosmopolitan, with Cindy Crawford on the cover, and later, the Feb. 29 issue of People, with a cover story of "JFK and the Mob."

-- Great Moments in Shilling: Macon and Muriel's flight to Paris is showing Innerspace.

-- Different Times: One week of boarding a dog costing $42 feels like quite a bargain.
-- Surely you didn't think I was not going to acknowledge Willard Scott's death, did you? Let's go with this exchange from The Golden Girls:
Blanche: “Dorothy, I have terrible news. We don't have an emcee for the talent show. Kent Ferguson, the KTMB weatherman, has just dropped out.”
Dorothy: “Oh, you have to be kidding. What happened?”
Blanche: “He's filling in for Willard Scott on The Today Show. It seems Willard ate some bad scallops on the air that he got through the mail. He wandered over to the critics' corner and lost his cookies on Gene Shalit. Gene thought it was because Willard disagreed with his review of The Accidental Tourist. Willard apologized and left the studio. Officially, they're saying he's 'on assignment.'”
Dorothy: “Well, at least some good came of it. I mean, it's about time someone threw up on Gene Shalit.”
-- "You were right about me. I haven't taken steps very often. Maybe it's not too late for me to start. ... I'm beginning to think that maybe it's not just how much you love someone. Maybe what matters is who you are when you're with them. ... Well, I tried (to live after Ethan's death) but I couldn't do it on my own. This woman -- this odd woman -- helped me. She's given me another chance to decide who I am, to step out of the Leary groove -- and stay out. You don't need me anymore. We both know that. But I need her."

-- Next: Mississippi Burning. On deck: Madame Sousatzka.