Thoughts on Tidy Endings and Mystic Pizza

 

via Giphy/Courtesy HBO

"... I met Colin my sophomore year, and we got married right after graduation. And settled in for a nice quiet life of kids and careers. ... You think I was ready for this? Talk about life's little surprises. You live with somebody for 11 years and you share a life, a bed, you have a child, and one day you wake up and he tells you it's all been a lie. A lie. Try that one on for size. Here you are, the happiest couple you know and he tells you it's all been a lie."

I'm not going to force an association between Tidy Endings, about the ex-wife (Stockard Channing) and widowed partner (Harvey Fierstein, who adapted his one-act play) of a man recently dead from AIDS, and Mystic Pizza, where working class New England girls Kat (Annabeth Gish), Daisy (Julia Roberts) and Jojo (Lili Taylor) come of age over an autumn. I watched these movies back-to-back because I'm nearing the end of The Women of 1988, not because I expected to find some shared DNA. The best I've got is that all five leads have suffered for their men and came out of the experience either better (like Jojo & Kat), hopeful (Kat & Daisy, who are sisters) or bonded (Kat & Daisy again, but also Marion & Arthur).

Colin evenly divided his estate between Marion and Arthur. Marion has permission from Arthur to sell the loft that he and Colin lived in, which Colin and Marion purchased during their marriage. The two bereaved people are going to split the sale's proceeds and ostensibly begin their new lives. Naturally, it's not at all that easy. Arthur and Marion keep alternating between rapprochement and rancor. Everything from whether or not Marion is entitled to items from the loft to the behavior of her son Jimmy (Nathaniel Moreau) triggers a head-to-head. Arthur understands Jimmy being cold to him, as the boy still has confusion over feeling like he lost his dad. There's plenty of confusion. Marion admits most of Colin's mourners didn't know he was gay.

Directed by Gavin Millar, Tidy Endings is ultimately worth viewing. Channing and Fierstein are compelling together, even if I wished their roles allowed for a little more range. After a while, Arthur going from hot to cold at the drop of a hat, while Marion copes with whatever mood he's in, gets wearing. I loved a lot of the dialogue, like Arthur's monologue about Colin's last moments. He got to die in Arthur's arms. Right from the start, we know that neither Arthur nor Marion will get a clean break from each other or from Colin. There's the grief they share, as well as being part of a society amid the AIDS epidemic. If losing Colin wasn't close enough exposure for Marion, she's also living with the antibodies. It looks like she's "just" a virus carrier.

"... I'm fine. In fact, I don't know, I feel kind of good. I mean, if you think about it, Bill and I are so different. Everything he wants, I don't. The marriage, the kids, all that stuff. I mean, I really want that stuff. Real bad, I just don't want it now. ... He doesn't understand. If he really loved me, he'd wait. ... But I guess if I really loved him, I'd marry him. ... Maybe I don't love Bill. ... But I really do love Bill, though. ..."

Bachelor No. 1, Bill (Vincent D'Onofrio), had his wedding aborted when Jojo fainted at the altar. No points for guessing Bill and Jojo's relationship status by the end credits. Bachelor No. 2, Tim (William R. Moses), is even more spoken for than Bill. He's a married man with a young daughter, wife abroad and opportunity in the form of babysitter Kat. Bachelor No. 3, Charlie (Adam Storke), is a rusted golden boy. He's on a higher plateau than Daisy is used to, but he's actually the one who's not worthy of her. Bachelor No. 4 ... is Manny (Bucky Walsh), the old guy who works alongside the girls at the pizza parlor owned and operated by Leona (Conchata Ferrell). Mystic Pizza is a bit like a pizza itself, initially served at once, then slice by slice.

Four writers were credited for Pizza: Amy Holden Jones, who also got story credit; Perry & Randy Howze; and Alfred Uhry. Directed by Donald Petrie, the movie somewhat squanders the appealing idea of a female trio maturing together. Don't get me wrong, there's fun scenes like Kat, Daisy and Jojo crashing a country club evening. But I also felt like the storytelling was fragmented. I guess I wanted a scene where the three gals and the three gentlemen all sized each other up. Still, for all its faults, Pizza has great moments for each of its leading ladies and some especially fine two-hander scenes. All interactions between Gish and Roberts are especially worth watching, like when Daisy and Kit argue over the reality of their complicated romances.

(This line is from Tidy Endings, but it could have been in Pizza.)
"Just tell me you'll be there if I ever need you."

"Yes, sure, take away one more thing that belonged to me."

"Don't even joke about that."

Courtesy Yarn/The Samuel Goldwyn Company

Thoughts:
-- "... I have paid in full for my place in his life and I will not share it with you. We are not the two widows of Colin Redding. Your life was not here. You have a husband and his son somewhere else. You've got a whole new life, sitting there, waiting for you, wondering as I am what the hell you are doing here and why you won't let go. Let him go, Marion, he's mine. Dead or alive. Mine."

-- Awards Watch: Tidy Endings won four out of the five CableACE awards it was nominated for, including Dramatic or Theatrical Special, Millar's direction, Channing's performance and Fierstein's writing. The only award it lost was for Fierstein's performance. He was beaten by Daniel Massey for Intimate Contact, also about AIDS, but this time concerning a promiscuous "self-satisfied upper middle class husband" who gets diagnosed. Channing won over Claire Bloom, who played Massey's wife.

-- Critic's Corner, Mystic: "Though in essence this is little more than a girls' romance novel brought to life, it has been filled with heart and humor," Janet Maslin wrote. Hal Hinson: "An old-fashioned woman's picture updated (just slightly) for '80s women." Michael Wilmington: "Beyond some well-observed sibling interaction, the mutual effort of four writers is mutually uninspired." David Denby: "Lousy but harmless."

-- Critic's Corner, Mystic's women: "You get the general sense that the actors -- particularly Annabeth Gish ... are better than their material, but this is scant compensation," Hinson wrote. Roger Ebert: "Taylor, who is given what's intended as a more comic role, finds human comedy ..." And then there's Julia, described more than once as "voluptuous." "Mr. Storke holds his ground with the scene-stealing Miss Roberts, which must have been very difficult indeed," Maslin wrote. She got the money quote from Wilmington: "Shows a priceless movie quality: a real sense of danger and unpredictability."

-- Hey, It's ...!: Matt Damon, as Charlie's brother Steamer. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when Julia and Matt first met, followed by when they reunited for the Oceans films, long becoming genuine movie stars.

-- Hey, It's the Late '80s!: The Arujo TV is tuned to Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, doing a segment on ... hoo boy ... Mar-a-Lago.

-- Today in Theater: Marion, talking about how she hates cats, naturally mentions not liking Cats.

-- Tidy Endings, as mentioned, began life as a one-act play. It was part of Fierstein's Safe Sex, which quickly closed on Broadway in 1987. Fierstein originated the role of Arthur, opposite Anne DeSalvo as Marion.

-- "Jesus Christ, these shoes are killing me." "Daisy, do you have to talk like that?" "I'm sorry, I meant to say, 'These fucking shoes are killing me.'"

-- Next: The Women of 1988 finally concludes with Mama's Family and bonus Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. On deck: I take a one-week break, then do the final Thoughts On Mad About You posts.