Nadine

This is a very cute comedy caper movie. Kim Basinger is perfect as the ditsy West Texas small town girl, and Jeff Bridges is great as her even dumber husband. Rip Torn is also good as the villain. Plot is pretty simple, but fun. I've shared this with several others in the 35+ year old class, and they all enjoyed it. Very good chemistry between the leads.

This film centers on an about-to-be divorced couple (Basinger and Bridges) in the Austin of 1954, who get thrown back together when Basinger accidentally comes into possession of the state's secret plans for a new highway. Bridges steals the plans from her and figures on using the information to get rich, until the arch-hustler criminal Torn gets other ideas. It's a classic mix of romantic comedy and caper movie, with a pair of thugs working for Torn who might be straight out of Home Alone. It's not as if the plot is all that thrilling, and in truth if it had been shot in black and white and were 50 years older, it wouldn't stand out from some of Jimmy Cagney's potboilers from the 30's. But the three main actors are all terrific (especially Basinger), and we even get a brief cameo appearance by George Costanza's father (Jerry Stiller), who winds up in a way that George Costanza might have dreamed about. Recommended.

In 1954, in Austin, Texas, the sexy Nadine Hightower (Kim Basinger) pays a visit to the photographer Raymond Escobar (Jerry Stiller) begging him to retrieve the photos he took from her since she believed that he would show them to Hugh Hefner. He gives an envelope to her mistakenly with the plans of the route of a new road instead and while she is waiting to leave his office, he is murdered bu his client. Nadine becomes the prime suspect and when her ex-husband Vernon Hightower (Jeff Bridges) visits her asking to sign the divorce papers, he sees the documents and realizes that they are valuable. While Vernon wants to make money with the documents, the powerful criminal Buford Pope (Rip Torn) chases Nadine and Vernon to retrieve the plans.

"Nadine" is an entertaining romantic adventure, with Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges showing a great chemistry. Maybe the best thing in this movie is the chance to see Kim Basinger in the top of her beauty and sensuality. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Nadine - Um Amor a Prova de Balas" ("Nadine – A Bullet Proof Love")

Robert Benton wrote and directed this daffy comedy about a Texas manicurist in 1950s Austin who enlists the aid of her estranged husband to help her retrieve some sexy photographs she had taken by a unscrupulous shutterbug; swiping blueprints for a new highway instead, the bickering couple are chased by both the police and a crooked kingpin who's out for blood. Sassy talk and gumshun are the highlights of this pleasant whiff of an idea--sort of an old-fashioned throwback to the cinema's second-feature--but it runs out of steam after an hour or so. Kim Basinger gets to show off her squirrelly side which is very appealing, and Jeff Bridges is a good match for her, but the ramifications of an early murder, the contents of the file, and the plot elements with the gun-toting villains, Bridges' new girlfriend, and Basinger's secret "condition" are not immediately captivating. Didn't Benton realize that the central relationship alone was more engaging than the chases and the overlong shoot-out finale in a junkyard? He was trying for a breezy screwball effect, but this approach is only successful in setting up the story. The rest is irrelevant. ** from ****

I thoroughly enjoyed this comedy caper movie set in the Deep South, and I can't understand why it has such a low average vote. Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges play a divorced couple who team up to solve a murder mystery and end up re-igniting their relationship. The two have a good on-screen chemistry which, along with the comic-book-style humour and plot, is what makes the movie. All in all an enjoyable comedy/romance/thriller/caper/adventure affair with style and wit. 9/10