have a gay old time

-

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a romantic comedy. I mean, structurally. Tripping over the trunk, accidentally stealing the cab, ending up next to each other on the flight—this is the meet-cute for Neal and Del. In Hinnant’s (2006) terms, this would be the courtship model that begins with “an atmosphere of bitter animosity. It involves the initial antagonism of an improbable pair of lovers who will only slowly come to appreciate in one another the sterling moral characteristics prized in the courtship novel” (p. 297). Now, for Neal and Del, it’s a little more one-sided than that. Del is the friendly one in this pair, Neal the standoffish one.

Del just asked Neal, “You want to take a shower?” Neal misunderstood and thought Del wanted them to shower together. Or did he misunderstand?

Seriously, just imagine Steve Martin’s Neal as a woman, like the Sally to Del’s Harry.

They share a bed their first night together. And, Neal has to sleep in the wet spot.

Dowd and Pallotta (2000) tell us that one “ingredient of the classic romance is the present of a serious obstacle, or impediment, that lies in the path of the developing relationship. ...romance must constitute a struggle against some outside force that, intentional or not, serves to separate the lovers and in other ways make difficult the progress of their love” (p. 552). Neal is married. So, there’s a bit of Hinnant’s (2006) third model of courtship and romance—“a drama of prior commitment” (p. 296). If Neal did not have the wife and kids to go home to, he would be free to accept Del’s... friendship. They could have just stuck together in Wichita for a while.

Well, maybe not Wichita. Recall perhaps (though it’s been a couple months probably since I cited it) Henderson’s (1978) contention that “romantic comedy has always been urban and urban-oriented, aggressively, smugly assuming the superiority of city over country” (p. 19). Neal and Deal are stuck, through most of this film, in middle America, the rural areas between Wichita and Chicago, but the movie doesn’t really celebrate those locations; instead, those are the places where things go wrong. The urban environment ofChicago and also the suburban part thereof where Neal’s family lives—that is what ends up mattering in this film. The entire film is about getting Neal to his home, to that Chicago suburb where he lives. He may be tempted by a fling with Del along the way, but ultimately, he returns to his wife and his kids and the life of a guy in marketing.

In a way, the basic plotline of Planes, Trains & Automobiles—Del helping Neal get back to his wife—reminds me of another John Hughes movie from the same year—Some Kind of Wonderful. If you aren’t familiar with the film, Keith wants to get together with the most popular girl in school, Amanda Jones. His best friend, tomboy Watts, supports his cause for a while, until it becomes clear (for us, probably, before her) that she has feelings for Keith. Still, up until the last scene, she is still supporting Keith’s feelings for someone other than her. Here, in Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Del stands by Neal all the way to Chicago not necessarily because Del has business in Chicago—that is never made clear—but because Del is reaching out for human contact. A widower, he is lonely and he has found the perfect... friend in Neal.

Per Dowd and Pallotta (2000), the formula holds up in this film. They explain: “The formula mandates that the lovers achieve an initial rapprochement only to separate but, by story’s end, to reunite as a romantic couple” (p. 559). Neal and Del actually separate more than once, only to come back together each time, until finally, Neal invites Del into his home. This last bit even ties to Dowd and Pallotta’s notion that “the romantic relationship today [has] two parts: the courtship and the routinized life together” (p. 565). By inviting Del into his home, Neal has moved past the former part and into the latter, metaphorically carrying Del over the threshold.

Works Cited

Dowd, J.J. & Pallotta, N.R. (2000). The End of Romance: The Demystification of Love in the Postmodern Age. Sociological Perspectives 43:4, pp. 549-580.

Henderson, B. (1978). Romantic Comedy Today: Semi-Tough or Impossible? Film Quarterly 31:4, pp. 11-23.

Hinnant, C.H. (2006). Jane Austen’s “Wild Imagination”: Romance and the Courtship Plot in the Six Canonical Novels. Narrative 14:3, pp. 294-310.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

la fille que j'aimera sera comme bon vin

-
Image
Phil Connors doesn’t speak French. While it might be reasonable to assume Phil does learn to play piano beyond the two songs we hear him play since this is at the point he is actually trying to better himself and affect the world around him in a positive way, the French bit is much earlier. It also comes from a bit in Rubin’s original screenplay, not with Rita but with “Tess Harper—Jefferson County Poetry Society.” Basically, it’s a clear example of Phil doing the same thing he does with Nancy in the movie; he makes stuff up to get what he wants. This is only Day 10 . He hasn’t gotten to the depression that arguably makes him realize he’s an actual human being like everyone else around him… I just realized, this also means he’s probably lying when he says, “Small town people are more real, more down-to-earth.” Later, he might actually believe it. But, at this point, each line is just a move to win over Rita. Anyway, in the original screenplay, Phil meets Tess like he meets Mary in
Read more

i've seen it over a hundred times

-
Image
As I write this, it’s Day 2 for Phil Connors on the DVD and my daughters are in the kitchen making a cake to celebrate Day 100 for me... photo should be below. The movie Phil had seen over 100 times (or so he tells Laraine) was Heidi II . It’s a “family classic” according to the Alpine Theater’s marquee. But, as I’ve mentioned before, it doesn’t exist. Originally, the movie that Phil could see every day if he wanted to do so was It’s a Wonderful Life . Danny Rubin’s ego—and this is his suggestion, not mine—made him believe Groundhog Day “a timeless quality and had the potential to become a film that could work for audiences for a very long time.” So, he put another such film on the marquee. But, “even believing that Groundhog Day was a potential classic, [Rubin] never was thinking of comparing it to It’s a Wonderful Life “— (I’d say putting that title on the marquee was Rubin deliberately comparing the two, but maybe that’s just me.) . Rubin continues: “But the similarities bet
Read more

the wretch, concentred all in self

-
So, Rita thinks Phil’s defining characteristic is his egocentrism. At the point in the story that she quotes Sir Walter Scott, it’s Day 4 for Phil (See the previous entry for a list of Phil’s days) and I wouldn’t argue that he isn’t egocentric. He’s still a jerk, taking advantage of his situation for fun. He’s manipulated Nancy for sex, has gone out on his costumed date to see Heidi II with the woman in the French maid costume. He’s just figured out the whole lack-of-consequences side of things with the help of Ralph and Gus. And, he’s sitting around loading up on, well, probably every dessert the Tip Top Café offers. His focus at this point is very much himself. But, a closer look at the lines Rita quotes got me to thinking, is Phil the man unsung by minstrels because he’s too self-centered? What Rita quotes is some lines from Canto VI of Sir Walter Scott’s “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.” The larger poem involves some clans at war with one another, but this particular section invol
Read more