This movie was released in 1997, and nearly grossed a dismal $35 million; it received no awards, yet this is one of the greatest movies ever in my opinion. The movie is so dark, but with such belly laughs that it's hard to worry about the evil doing going on by the 'good guys'.


The Story

Sam (Matthew Broderick - Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Stepford Wives) and Linda (Kelly Preston - Jerry Maguire, Twins) live in a nice east coast suburban area and everything is perfect. Sam has a job he loves (astronomy), the woman he loves, and everyday seems sunny.
Linda is on her way to NYC for a short time, and that's when everything changes.

Instead of Linda's return from New York, her father, Mr. Green, is knocking on Sam's door to read Linda's 'Dear John' letter.

Sam hurries to NY, finds out what hotel she is living in, and then follows her. He finds that she is shacking up in quite an affluent apartment with a successful French man.
Sam takes residence in an abandoned apartment building across the street from the French man's apartment and decides to spy from there. Hoping and waiting for when Linda will leave this new man and come back to him.
He calls home and 'borrows' the device called camera-obscura. This allows him to manipulate and magnify video onto his wall with light and lens (or something like that).

One day, Maggie (Meg Ryan When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle) enters the abandoned building and she has interest in Anton (Tchéky Karyo - Operation Dumbo Drop, Golden Eye), this French man, that Linda is sleeping with because he is Maggie's ex-fiancée, and she feels used and disposed and needs revenge for her closure and pleasure.
The two combine brains and schemes, and now added to Sam's video, Maggie went in to Anton's apartment across the street and bugged his home, so they have just about full access.

The two scorned plan out their schemes by watching and listening to the couple across the street. They have a unique opportunity to see how well their schemes are working by watching Anton and Linda daily.

Sam needs to keep an even closer eye on Anton so he applies for a job as dishwasher in his French restaurant. The schemes that Maggie and Sam come up with are so cruel, yet hilarious. The cruelty is somehow part of what make the funny things so funny.


In the end, do they win? Do Sam and Maggie get what they want, revenge and love? It's so much fun as they try, with surprising twists here and there, definitely one of the darkest comedies you'll ever view.


My Thoughts

Meg Ryan is so wicked in this movie that it's addicting. Her character eventually entices the straight Sam to play the same games as she. Matthew Broderick is great in whatever I watch with him. Another one of my favorites with Matthew Broderick is The Night We Never Met.

This movie makes good use of its all-star cast. Having Kelly Preston portray Linda Green is very effective because it makes it so much more believable that a man would go to such lengths to win back his woman. She looks beautiful, and plays the perfect woman who changed so drastically since she's been gone effectively.

The man who stole every scene he was in is Tchéky Karyo. His portrayal as Anton Depeux was ingeniously funny. This actor has mainly been in only French speaking films since the early 1980s, and I wish he were in more. From his first line in the movie ("I hear yooouuuu") to his last ("Oh, oui oui..” he has had me in stitches, doubling over and slapping my knee. Tchéky Karyo is what gives this movie its charm more than anything.

The movie deals with dark subjects as voyeurism, lying, destroying a person's character, maiming...etc. But, having said this, the movie almost bases its laughs on these dark occurrences. What happens as the result is the plot produces more 'straight men'. I don't mean hetero, I mean 'straight man' as opposed to the slapstick person. Abbott and Costello were a perfect comedy team, and Lou Costello was the silly goof, while Bud Abbott was the stiff straight man. To me, the reaction of the straight man is what makes me crack up the most. Matthew Broderick's character is the straight man in the beginning, but then transforms into the goofy guy. Anton Depeux changes from sill to straight as well, and effortlessly.

This movie is directed by Griffin Dunne. He is an actor mostly, we've seen him in movies like My Girl, Amazon Women On The Moon and Johnny Dangerously. The only other movie I have seen of his that he directed was Practical Magic with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. I hated that movie, he got lucky or perhaps just a fantastic script by Robert Gordon ( Galaxy Quest, Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events).


The Music

The soundtrack to this movie is something special and should be acknowledged here. This soundtrack has a couple of English speaking songs but mostly the music featured is in another language. Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus by Serge Gainsbourg, or Victime De La Mode by MC Solaar are two French songs here that give authentic ambiance to the film. This movie introduced me to Luscious Jackson with their song Naked Eye, and of course, we have Addicted To Love by the late Robert Palmer.

Movie: 4½ stars
DVD: 4 stars


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age