Synopsis: Macon Leary (William Hurt) writes travel guides for a living. He teaches people who hate to travel how to travel while feeling like they never left. He, in a sense, teaches people to not connect with anything around them. Macon is a pro at this and he stops connecting with everyone, especially his wife, Sarah (Kathleen Turner). This results in a divorce leaving Macon all alone with his dog, Edward. Things get interesting when Macon has to go on an emergency business trip and he has no where to put Edward. He brings him to a kennel where he meets Muriel Pritchett (Geena Davis). She's very forward in pursuing Macon and does get him. But how does a man make another connection when all the ones before have failed so miserably and his entire living has been dedicated to avoiding connections as it is. Should You Watch It? I'm going to be very frank with you. This movie is really really slow. But it's pretty good if you're willing to wait. The film uses a clever gimmick relating the travel guide that Macon is writing to what is actually going on in his life. In the book, he gives suggestions to readers of what not to do but he's breaking all the rules with his relationship with Muriel. It's a clever character study which eventually invovles Macon's family whom are like him: afraid of connections. If you hate action and love the drama then this is the film to watch.
Things to Watch Out For: Being a character study film, it's very metaphorical with a lot of pokes and jests at what people do wrong in their lives and how they should get more invovled with society in order to live happier. These metaphors are non-stop and ranges from direct dialogue to how Muriel trains Macon's dog. It's hard to spot all of them and if you try, it might get a little annoying. So maybe you should just spot the obvious ones for fun and just turn your brain off and focus on... Well, there really isn't much else but maybe the subplot with Macon's family will be enough.
Things You Don't Expect: This film is quite long and the ending is a bit meh. In fact, I think they could have shortened the whole thing by 20 minutes if they really wanted to. Other than that, there are some moments worthy of hair pulling with how stupid the characters are sometimes. Come on, Macon. When some hot girl is throwing herself on you, you go for it!
Final Comments:
Story: 7.8 (Anne Tyler: novel. Frank Galati & Lawrence Kasdan: screen play)
Direction: 7.0 (Lawrence Kasdan)
Acting: 6.8
Cinematography: 6.0
Music/Sound: 5.0
Final Score: 6.2
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