Throw Momma From The Train
If one looks at the directorial efforts of Danny DeVito, it is easy to detect a distinctly dark sense of humor in his work, albeit with a heavy dose of overly comedic elements in order to keep people laughing and thus for the most part be able to retain a PG-13 level rating on most of his films. Since DeVito himself is really little more than just a wormy character actor (but also one who is very heavily connected in Hollywood) who nevertheless shot himself to the top of the A list with a series of memorable and charismatic performances in the 1980s and has also branched out as a producer as well, the tendency in his own work as a filmmaker to explore some truly twisted material with mixed results has got to make some people question whether his dark visions would be just a little bit more accomplished if he completely dropped the humorous aspects from his movies. Many would argue that his best work in this domain was this 1987 release (his debut as a feature film director after working extensively in TV and shorts) where he obviously recognized his strengths as a leading actor and cast himself as a middle aged, dumpy little social misfit named Owen Lifts, a wannabe writer (whose actual work occupation, if any, is never identified) who lives at home with his monstrous, domineering mother for whom delivering a hard slap in his face is always just mere seconds away along with heaps of screaming verbal abuse. DeVito certainly recognizes the keen aspects of playing this type of darkened character (with stalker tendencies to boot) and does it pretty well despite the characterâs predilection to say or do random things in order to break the mood. Owen attends a creative writing class at a small community college that is being taught by Larry Donner as played by Billy Crystal, best known as being an Oscar host but also occasionally breaking away from that in order to get some interesting film roles and this one certainly qualifies as being the darkest on Crystalâs resume as well. Turns out that Crystal is teaching at this crappy little college and is stuck with a severe case of writerâs block due to the fact that his beautiful ex wife (Kate Mulgrew, best known as Captain Janeway on Star Trek Voyager) has stolen his most recent (masterpiece) novel and put her own name on it, resulting in HER becoming a jetsetting best selling novelist and now living in Hawaii where she seems to attend a party every night. This has caused Crystal to virtually become a raging fountain of psychotic hate, constantly telling people early and often of her treachery and just what heâd like to do to her if given the chance (even in public) but alas, this being Billy Crystal weâre talking about here, he just simply doesnât have it in him to actually harm anyone no matter how much he talks about it. That is until DeVito (along with his other students) overhears one of Crystalâs pathological (and pathetic) rants about wanting his ex wife dead. Being the simpleton idiot that he is, DeVito has turned in a story to Crystal that he calls a âmurder mysteryâ, yet is only three pages long and only features two characters! Crystal explains to him the nuts and bolts of writing a good story like this, even encouraging him to go see a Hitchcock movie, which DeVito does: Strangers On A Train (which this film is a warped remake of) in which the two main characters decide to âswap murdersâ in order to have a watertight alibi while the other one does their dirty work. DeVito decides to have a go at murdering Crystalâs ex wife while encouraging Crystal to do the same to his Momma, an idea which Crystal finds appalling until he realizes that DeVito may very well have gone all the way out to Hawaii to do exactly that to his ex (the news reports have her listed as being missing). Crystal halfheartedly sort of agrees to fulfill his end (although it seems that he might just be telling DeVito exactly what he wants to hear) and while hiding out from the cops (having apparently never bothered to establish a good alibi), he comes to stay at the house where DeVito lives with his Momma. As played by Anne Ramsey (best known by many as the evil crime boss mother in Goonies, although itâs debatable whether her character here was more memorable), she turns out to be a truly nasty piece of work, with her antiquated decorations in her home and utter contempt for Crystal at first sight, taking shots at him with her cane and peppering him with a slew of insults, the type of treatment that makes one wonder if the mild mannered Crystal could actually find it in himself to take her out. Ramsey certainly found a level of stardom here like never before in her character acting career, garnering an Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actress (which was pretty shocking in itself) before dying a year later from complications of the throat cancer which had caused her to have a part of her tongue removed and resulted in her speech impediment which she put to brilliant use in this particular role. Indeed, the entire performance reeks of an old time actress going all out to the point of hilarious unpleasantness in order to bring the proper air of gothic morbidity to the whole affair, helping immensely to make the film both dark and funny at the same time (and the non stop slapping around that DeVito endures at her hands can be enjoyed by everyone regardless of what you think of DeVito as an actor). The other notable cast members include the very hot Kim Griest as another professor at the college who is dating Crystal (and continues to do so despite the somewhat creepy way he keeps talking about his ex wife), former Jay Leno sidekick Branford Marsalis as Crystalâs smooth talking best friend who tells the cops straight up that Crystal couldnât have killed his ex because he knows first hand that his best friend âcouldnât do anythingâ, Rob Reiner in a cameo as Crystalâs obviously gay literary agent who could seem to care less about what his ex did to him even if he knew it to be true and in the standout small role of the film, Raye Birk as another writing student of Crystalâs whose big project is called â100 Girls Iâd Like To Porkâ (Chapter 1, Kathleen Turner. Chapter 2, Cybill Shepherd. Chapter 3, Suzanne PleshetteâŚ) and basically consists of him writing about his sexual fantasies involving the women contained therein (âItâs aâŚcoffee table book.â). In the end, the question must be asked, is all of this funny? Well, in many ways, yes, although the best bits are just that, individual bits scattered throughout the film that taken on their own, are incredibly hilarious (example: the frying pan scene) and certainly Ramsey as Momma takes no comedic prisoners whenever sheâs onscreen. The slightly more troubling aspect is that, taken as a whole piece of work, itâs sometimes difficult to accept the occasionally melancholy way that DeVitoâs character is portrayed in, going for the sympathy points early and often when for much of the film one can understand why he gets the business from his Momma for being such a loser, and yet despite the âlovableâ aspect that DeVito strives so hard for, one must remember that he also has a habit of stalking others and at the very least is guilty of first degree attempted murder towards someone whom he has never met in his entire life plus he does so in an attempt to have his own mother killed. Crystal at least is a lot more consistent in his manic performance (adlibbing much of it for laughs), as we believe that he would never want to actually kill somebody (even his ex) all while making us chuckle at his neverending frustration everytime he so much as hears her name or anything about her newfound success. The story contains a few holes here and there which are typical for 80s comedies when the boundaries of actual realistic situations are stretched in order to further the story even more and the rushed finale on the train sends even more of the credibility out the window. Nonetheless, this remains a quality macabre comedy which magnifies that of a real life American horror story, that of the grown male mamaâs boy who never really grew up not so much because of a domineering mother, but mostly because of his own weakness at never really wanting to be his own man in the first place and thus using his mother as a crutch to justify his weakness and to have a convenient source of blameâŚ
8/10