GamerTab That was an excellent one.

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

mnpollio After the death of his child, travel author William Hurt retreats into an emotional shell and watches his marriage to Kathleen Turner dissolve before finding a second chance at happiness with eccentric dog trainer Geena Davis.Lawrence Kasdan's by-the-numbers adaptation of Anne Tyler's novel is a passable, if overly pedestrian drama that has many fans with a tendency to over-exaggerate its emotional impact. Anyone anticipating sparks to fly with the reunion of Hurt and Turner with their Body Heat director Kasdan will likely be surprised by this tame seriocomic oddity that is light years from film noir. The storyline relies on bizarre character traits to generate interest, but they only do so sporadically and haphazardly. For instance, much time is spent with Hurt's two brothers and sister, all broadly played by Ed Begley, David Ogden Stiers and Amy Wright. The three of them co-habit in one house and spend their days doing such madcap things as ignoring the ringing telephone and alphabetizing their canned goods. Apparently this is supposed to be more amusing then it really is. When Hurt's editor, delightfully played by Bill Pullman, falls in love with Wright, the attraction is puzzling because Pullman comes off as a real person, while Hurt's family seem like sketches for a rejected skit from an episode of The Carol Burnett Show.Turner is utterly wasted in the film. It isn't that she is not good, but she is saddled with a glorified supporting turn that requires her to vanish for extended periods of time. She is not allowed to have any meaningful emotional moments with Hurt, so that his late act decision contains no surprise. Geena Davis bugs her eyes out and purses her lips in an attempt to appear kooky, and actually she is quite good in the film, but she is miscast and there is no getting around it. Davis is one of the most attractive actresses working in Hollywood and her innate charm is on display here, so that when all of these people keep pulling Hurt aside and asking in genuine bewilderment "What do you see in this Muriel woman?" - we have no idea what they are talking about and they all seem like idiots. Is she supposed to be undesirable? If so, then the casting is completely wrong.Ultimately, though, the film rises and falls on Hurt. It is his show and the film focused on his emotional journey breaking out of his indifference and fear. In his best moments, I have always found Hurt to be a very mannered actor. His Method approach often seems self-conscious and he loves to overuse an arsenal of tics and odd vocal inflections in place of genuine range. Sometimes it works - here it fails him. He comes off less as a victim of emotional shellshock than he does a somnambulist. It is impossible to see why Turner would want him back or why Davis would instigate a relationship with him. Even worse, when his character starts taking decisive action and makes some daring choices, he seems just as lifeless as he was at the beginning of the film. He comes off as a guy just going through the motions - which would be a good description of the film itself. It looks great, but ultimately it is just going through the motions.

Agnelin "The accidental tourist" is, for me, the perfect compendium of a heartfelt drama -though never melodramatic- a bigger-than-life story, a romance, and a comedy, never quite being any of them, but borrowing bits and pieces of each of those styles and genres. It is a film of rare elegance and subtlety, and one of its best qualities is, in my opinion, the fact that it feels extremely real: all the drama, emotion, humor, love, relationship story is something taken out of real people's lives. This film could have been the portrait of any person out of the street, on any given day.Each and every one of the actors is just perfect in his/her role, from the main roles to the supporting ones. William Hurt shines as Macon Leary, a grayish writer of travel guides for businessmen or people who generally travel by obligation. His aim in doing so is to provide those people a false feeling of security in every moment they are away from home.When the movie begins, Macon's wife, Sarah (Kathleen Turner, another great pick for this role) is leaving him. We learn that their only son, Ethan, had died the previous year, and their marriage just does not feel the same to Sarah. From this moment on, Macon will have to keep living his life, not really wanting to or trying to make any changes. But he's in for something unexpected when beautiful and funny dog-trainer Muriel (Geena Davis) enters his life and turns it upside down... What follows is the story of Macon thereafter, and how he learns more about himself, life, and starting anew even after something as painful as losing a child has happened in a person's life.Even though the movie's starting point and leitmotiv is the death of one's child, this movie is not a melodrama, and it is not a laugh-out-loud comedy, either, even though some of its lines and scenes have made me laugh more than many so-called comedies. It is a simple story, but it is extraordinary in how it is told, in how close it feels to the viewer, in how it makes you believe in that yes, it is possible to reinvent ourselves and to become someone better, more ambitious, wiser, and more able to love and be loved. This is the kind of gem that studios just don't make anymore.My vote is 10/10.

moonspinner55 After a year of silent grief over the loss of their son, an East Coast author of travel manuals for business-people and his mercurial wife of seventeen years decide to separate; he gets custody of the family dog, whose need for obedience-training leads the writer to a pert, persistent dog-trainer (who, apparently, also teaches men as well). Terrific adaptation of Anne Tyler's book by Frank Galati and producer-director Lawrence Kasdan, who are careful not to let the eccentric comedy inherent in the story and characters go over the top. William Hurt (in yet another wonderfully precise performance) mends a broken leg at the family home of his directionless siblings, each of whom of are very funny--though not in an outrageous way; the unconventionality of their personalities is touched upon so gingerly, we understand a great deal about them without exposition. This may be some of the best directing Kasdan has ever done. Oscar-winner Geena Davis is perhaps too forceful in some of her early scenes, and Kasdan's camera appears to be checking out her figure without protagonist Hurt seemingly being aware of it. Still, their relationship, which is far from smooth, is quirky and interesting because Davis cuts right through the bull. She liberates Hurt from his grip on the past but, sadly, the formula-end of the story dictates that we must bring back the estranged wife for dramatic purposes. The film's third act loses its way, which is a shame, yet the writing here doesn't mitigate some marvelous moments and fully-realized portrayals. It's a smart, exceptional treatise on love and starting over, and William Hurt proves once again to be a master at his craft. *** from ****

secondtake Accidental Tourist (1988)So, for starters, Geena Davis won a best supporting actress for this role. She is a surprising presence, but she is only a shadow, to me, of William Hurt's deceptively taut and perceptive role. Weakest of the three main actors is Kathleen Turner, who is brought far down from the energy she had, say, in "Peggy Sue Got Married" just two years earlier. This might be because Davis is lifted so high.The story is by Anne Tyler, who won awards and praise for her novel, as literature, before the movie. The hook implied by the title is just the starting point. Even though "Accidental Tourist" deals with totally, very, beautifully serious things, there is a kind of gleam to it all, a knowing despondency, as if the writer knew what tricks to use to make us feel deep things. And it's sort of okay, even at the end, which is improbable the way it is played out, but is emotionally really satisfying.I liked the movie a lot, for sure. It's about feelings and real people, without crime and violence, and I like all that. But maybe the Oscar might have gone to William Hurt, who pulls off a subtle role with absolutism. He nails the detached, patient, observant, fearful person that his character is. Geena Davis with all her idiosyncratic energy, and later with her more mainstream domesticity (the two are never resolved), is a perfect spark for his smolder. And it pulls together, most of the time, but there are oddities that are meant to be quaint and fun that throw it off course. The agent is awkward, the Leary family is like a comic idea that just makes the depth of the principles odd for their seriousness. And the sudden attempt at reconciliation seems improbable, at least with the knee-jerk way it comes off. The music is oddly repetitive and annoying if you notice it, too.One element, of course, that infects how you look at all this, is the role of the two children, the two sons. They make everything the adults do significant, even if still sometimes questionable. But hey, it's actually a soap opera, which I love, with emotions flying this way and that, and echoes of our own lives everywhere. So dive in and give it all a go. Even it feels slow at times, give it a moment. Hurt, who isn't always on target in other films, is really perfectly cast here, and he makes it work.