Funny About Love
Dir: Leonard Nimoy
1990
***
Funny About Love is based on an Esquire article
written by Bob Greene in the late 80's titled "Convention of the Love
Goddesses" that was based on his experiences after being asked to speak at
the national convention of the Delta Gamma sorority. While Gene Wilder's
character does speak at said convention, the rest of the film is a muddled and
rather odd mess that is, according the producer Jon Avnet, "an exploration
of a man's relationship with the women in his life". The problem is that
in what is supposed to be a very real look at adult relationships, turns into a
weird and rather cringe-worthy middle-aged man's fantasy that doesn't sit well,
it certainly didn't with audiences and critics in 1990. Gene Wilder plays
a satirical cartoonist called Duffy who seems wealthy and
relatively care-free. He meets a young (seventeen years younger in fact)
caterer called Meg (played by Christine Lahti) at a signing event who makes
terrible cappuccino, and then falls in love with her within a couple of
minutes. Within a few months they marry and try for children but due to his
warm sperm and her inhabitable womb, they are both unable to conceive, so they
split with no real convincing feeling that they should, especially as neither
of them were convincing in wanting a child in the first place. Duffy's mother
is killed by a falling piano and his father remarries within a couple of days.
Meg goes from caterer to famous chief within a couple of weeks and Duffy
flies to Arizona for the national convention of the Delta Gamma sorority
and begins an affair with a girl thirty-three years younger than him. It's
not creepy, though, he is at a loss after losing both wife and mother. At
least that seems to be the reasoning behind it, the truth is that it is all
very cringe-worthy and my toes hurt after they automatically curled up as
far as they could during various unnecessary sec scenes. The humour
is incredibly misjudged, Wilder's character is insulting and spoiled and very
unlike Wilder and everyone else is just a stooge and an idiot when placed next
to him. The conclusion is meant to be 'happy ever after' but in reality it is
more 'how, what and why and what again'. It's nonsense, ridiculous and rather
insulting. So why the hell have I given it three stars? Apart from the fact
that it's my page and I can do what I like, I think it's down to the fact that
I didn't hate the film and I'd rather watch Gene Wilder be a little rude to
someone than watch any current actor be nice. I love the 1980s nonsense idea
that everyone lives in a trendy apartment, have interesting jobs and can pretty
much do whatever they like. I like the way films were lit in the 80's, I liked
the cheesy soundtracks and the clothes etc. I love Gene Wilder, even when he's
given the worst script that has ever been written. I can't help it, Funny
About Love is an awful film, but I quite liked it.
