Wild Oats

Shirley MacLaine, a recently-widowed retired schoolteacher, and Jessica Lange, her best friend of 40 years who was recently dumped by her husband, decide to take advantage of an insurance agency's error and deposit MacLaine's check for $50,000,000 that should have been made out for $50,000; Howard Hesseman, the agency's oldest employee, is selected as the patsy who must get the company's money back or be fired. Geriatric travelogue takes the ladies to Gran Canaria, a picturesque island in Spain, where Shirley is taken in by con-artist Billy Connolly, who prays on wealthy widowed tourists. With so much plot packed into its 86-minute running time, it's no wonder that director Andy Tennant wasn't able to keep it all together. The opening scenes, with MacLaine behaving addle-brained and Lange acting much older than she actually is, are funny and silly but tolerable; second-half in Spain becomes a squashy narrative mess, with lots of 'cute' asides between the gals, who banter in a casual low-key, gamble, meet men, end their sex droughts, and never miss a chance to hug or cry. It's a little old lady's wish-fulfillment fantasy done up like a TV sitcom. ** from ****