Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Heart and Souls

heart and souls(1993)
Directed by
Ron Underwood
Screenplay by Gregory Hansen & Erik Hansen and Brent Maddock & S. S. Wilson
Starring Robert Downey, Jr, Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, Tom Sizemore, David Paymer, Elisabeth Shue
IMDB Entry

Robert Downey, Jr. is now a major movie star, but his rise has been anything but easy.  He grew up in a movie making family* and made his first appearance at the age of five. As an adult, he quickly established himself as one of the most respected actors in Hollywood.  In 1992, he got an Oscar nomination playing the lead in Chaplin and it looked like he might establish himself as a major star.  His first movie after the nomination was the delightful fantasy Heart and Souls.

It open in 1959.  A couple is rushing to the hospital late at night to have their first child when it collides with a bus.  Four strangers are killed in the accident:  Harrison Winslow (Charles Grodin), Penny Washington (Alfre Woodard), Julia (Kyra Sedgwich), and Milo Peck (Tom Sizemore).  But their ghosts cannot move on, and are attached to the newborn child, Thomas Riley.  So they act as his guardians, giving him advice and helping him along -- until the day when they realize that others think Thomas is carrying his "imaginary playmate" thing longer than is deemed healthy.**  So the group vanishes.  Thomas is devastated.

Thirty years later, Thomas (Downey) is a sharklike businessman who doesn't like commitment, frustrating his girlfriend Anne (Elizabeth Shue). Meanwhile the ghosts (who are still on Earth) are told by the bus driver (David Paymer) that the they need to complete the unfinished business of their lives to go to heaven. And the only way they do this is through Thomas.

Downey and the ghosts The movie is a bit old fashioned, but I don't think that's a weak point.  It would have been more at home if it had come out in the 1940s, but it still works nicely.

Downey is first rate. One of the conceits of the film is that the ghosts can possess him, and Downey makes you believe that there is a very different character taking him over. His slow change from cold businessman to a man conscious of his failings and willing to share that.

The cast is superb. At the time, they had three Oscar nominees among them (Downey, Woodard, and Paymer), and they and others have been nominated for Oscars, Emmys***, and Golden Globes since.  They bring the characters to life.

But the movie's old fashioned virtues may have been its downfall. It was released in August, a sure sign the studio didn't care for it, and got little critical notice. It did get nominated for a bunch of Saturn Awards, but no one pays much attention to them, and the box office was pretty dismal. 

Director Ron Underwood -- who had scored with the hits Tremors and City Slickers -- started a personal decline that led to the megaflop The Adventures of Pluto Nash.  He now works regularly in TV**** but hasn't had the chance to make more films. 

In a way, theme of the film -- redemption -- has a parallel to the life of Robert Downey, Jr.  Downey soon got into trouble with drugs and was arrested several times and spent time in prison. But, like his character, and all the characters in the film, he was able to turn his life around and is now a top star.  Maybe if he paid attention to what the movie was saying, he would have been successful much sooner.

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*His father directed the cult classic Putney Swope.

**Of course, in fiction, imaginary playmates never turn out to be  imaginary. 

***Grodin and Woodard were winners, Grodin for writing.

****As I write this, he had directed the episode of Castle that showed earlier this week.

4 comments:

Tom said...

I never saw this one; will have to give it a try. I always thought Grodin was an underrated comedic actor, appearing in everything from the Great Muppets Caper to Midnight Run with Robert de Niro.

Lissy said...

This is one of my favorite comedies, and was happy to see your blog about it. The moral of the story actually has stuck with me through the years!

A.P.Willowroot said...

One of my all time favorite movies! This is a jewel with many terrific moments rhat stick with you. Eric Lloyd gives an amazing perfornance as a young Thomas Cookie Boy.

Unknown said...

Absolutely love this movie!!!
I remember it from the 90's and have seen it only 2-3 time's since. Each time, I enjoyed it as if it were the first time all over again! I just caught about 3/4 of this movie this afternoon on HBO by accident - I was channel surfing waiting for my ride (which I promptly rescheduled for 8pm so I could watch the rest of this movie) and stopped dead LoL when I recognized the movie!
What a nice surprise that was!
If you haven't seen it - watch it! If you have seen it - watch it again!