Marilyn Hotchkiss... (2005)

Or to give the film its full title "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School".  I've see a number of newish movies over the last few days, but this obscurity is the one that made the biggest impression.  The gist of the tale is that baker and recent widower Robert Carlyle comes across John Goodman trapped in the wreck of his auto and probably dying.  (Parenthetically here it has been worrying me for a while how overweight and unhealthy-looking Goodman has become.)  While they wait for an ambulance, Goodman tells him that he was on his way to keep an appointment made some 40 years ago and begs Carlyle to keep it for him.  It seems that as a child he was one of the kids in his hometown forced by their mothers to attend the aforementioned lessons where he learned to appreciate girls and where he promised his would-be sweetheart that whatever became of their lives that they would meet at the said school on the fifth day of the fifth month in the fifth year of the new millenium.

The structure of the movie cuts between Goodman telling his story, backflashes to his youth, Carlyle at his grief therapy sessions, and the present with Carlyle at the dance class -- now run by the daughter of the original martinet -- with its assortment of not-so-young lonelyhearts. The movie is based on a short film of the same title made by the director, Randall Miller, some fifteen years ago with clips from the earlier film meshed into the new one -- this creates the surreal situation where we have one actor (Elden Henson) playing both Goodman as a child and a totally different adult character.  However most of the fun of this film for a buff like me was playing "spot the actor" since the huge cast included Marisa Tomei, Donnie Wahlberg, Mary Steenburgen, Sean Astin, Danny DeVito, and more; I kept saying, "Oh look, there's Sonia Braga and Ernie Hudson and David Paymer and Adam Arkin..."  Yes, I'm a nutcase!

Anyhow despite the choppy structure and occasional longeurs, the movie very definitely had its moments, both tear-jerking and big-smile-making.  I don't need much more from a film.

Since time seems to disappear with frightening speed, starting tomorrow I shall be spending hours on end at the annual FrightFest, so there will be no new reviews until next Tuesday at the earliest when I shall share with you my reactions to this year's horrors. 

Tags: Marilyn Hotchkiss, John Goodman, Robert Carlyle