Can two therapy session flunk-outs (Taylor&Bologna) at last find happiness, maybe with each other?
Hilarious original. I laughed from beginning to end. It may be New York centered, but the humor has broad everyday appeal. Take that family dinner at Giggy's (Bologna) parents, a feast from heck. Catch the guys at the table. Think they're going to miss a bite with all the hysterical women yelling and crying around them. Heck no. They just keep chomping away like all the bickering and hubbub is an everyday event, which it probably is.
What a beautifully observed narrative. Note how often the camera focuses on reactions to the speaker instead of the speaker herself. Some of those expressions are priceless, especially during that wacky therapy session that ends up in a group dog-pile. Or catch Panda's (Taylor) cheesy nightclub act, where the humiliated Giggie wishes he could disappear but doesn't know where the magic might come from. The movie's really a series of these hilarious set-ups, as the two balky lovebirds try to figure out who they are.
But no wonder they have an identity problem. In hilarious flashback, we learn how the two hapless kids are bombarded by humorously unfulfilled parents. As a result, Panda chases fame with the world's worst show-biz act, while a confused Giggie goes from the priesthood to Black Power to the Marines and into therapy.
The movie's also poignant at times and in a non-sappy way. Since each of the lovebirds figures the other is just temporary, they're constantly demeaning the other in thoughtless ways. Of course, it's usually done in humorous fashion, as when Panda dumps the naked Giggie onto her bedroom floor and into the clutches of her addled mother, while she rushes off to her existential nightclub act. Actually, they keep bumping off one another like a couple of careening billiard balls.
I expect Taylor and Bologna worked their own relationship into the material. But whatever the source, the movie's expertly done, with a comedic flavor unlike any I've seen. In fact, the 100-minutes holds up surprisingly well, even after four decades, probably because it's so richly human as some might say, with just the right touch throughout. Anyway, in my little book, the movie's a genuine sleeper from start to finish.
