"That Old Feeling" *** (out of ****)"I Saw You Last Night / And Got That Old Feeling / When You Came In Sight / I Got That Old Feeling"
Lyrics to song "That Old Feeling" by Lew Brown and Sammy Fain
Sparks begin to fly and reignite an old flame in the romantic comedy, "That Old Feeling" (1997).
"That Old Feeling" was directed by comedy legend Carl Reiner (who was 75 years old at the time of release). The movie would turn out to be Reiner's final film as a director.
There are obvious flaws in "That Old Feeling" which makes it difficult to defend. Although the movie was given a big marketing push, it failed at the box-office perhaps thanks to the negative critical reception it received. It is clear where the movie draws its inspiration from and what the objective was. This is an old-fashion comedy with a likewise sensibility. It recalls classic screwball comedies like "His Girl Friday" (1940), "It Happened One Night" (1934), and musicals like "Kiss Me Kate" (1953). It all amounts to something that is largely formulaic and predictable yet has an undeniable charm thanks to the performances given by the two lead actors; Bette Midler and Dennis Farina.
Midler and Farina are a divorced couple; Lilly Leonard and Dan De Mora. She is an actress and he is a novelist. They were married for 12 years until he had an affair with Rowena (Gail O' Grady) but not before, according to Dan, Lilly started sleeping with their couple therapist, Alan (David Rasche). That was 14 years ago and the two have not spoken since. However, their daughter, Molly (Paula Marshall) is about to marry the son of a wealthy conservative family. Will Lilly and Dan be able to remain civil and not cause a scene at their daughter's wedding and spoil the day?
You have to admit the premise sounds promising but neither director Reiner or writer Leslie Dixon can fully make this material sing. Yes, we have the standard opposites attract scenario between Lilly and Dan and can anticipate their eventually rekindling but the movie doesn't live up to its predecessors and make of laugh as much or do anything fresh and original.
There are moments of nice, snappy dialogue with one-liners and zingers but not enough. The best moment comes when Lilly and Dan finally come face to face at the wedding and immediately start to insult each other's looks as well as those of their spouses, Rowena and Alan. They fight over which one was really responsible for their divorce. The movie also could have also used more physical comedy, especially if it truly wanted to be an old-fashioned comedy.
Finally, and most detrimental, is the lack of fleshed out characters. We don't know much about Lilly and Dan or Rowena and Alan or Molly and her husband Keith (James Denton). A better movie would have set these characters up better. At least Lilly and Dan, showing them as happy with their lives and establishing their contentment, if not subtly hinting at a void. "That Old Feeling" doesn't do that and throws the characters together too quickly. Once they are together, the movie doesn't help us understand what they see in each other. Where's the love? It doesn't utilize the Rowena and Alan characters enough either while trying to get laughs. Alan has some good moments as he spews out ridiculous "helpful" insights into how to deal with anger and what makes relationships work. Rowena isn't as fortunate. The movie also creates an unnecessary sub-plot complication for the Keith character.
For all of these flaws however, I liked "That Old Feeling". Carl Reiner is far too talented a director to make a complete failure. He understands comedy and knows how to keep this movie, somewhat, moving along (although for me, it goes on 15 minutes too long). And he gets two entertaining performances out of Midler and Farina. It is largely because of them the movie works to the degree it does.
Admittedly there aren't a lot of big laughs (the movie opens with a sequence Woody Allen beat it to a year earlier in "Everyone Says I Love You" (1996), and much better) but there is a lot of smile material in "That Old Feeling". Because I liked Midler and Farina, I was willing to watch the movie until the end. We even get to hear Midler sing "Somewhere Along the Way" and the rest of the movie soundtrack is filled with standards like "Where or When", "Our Love Is Here To Stay", "There Will Never Be Another You", "Anything Goes", and of course "That Old Feeling".
Among his comedy contemporaries Reiner isn't as celebrated a filmmaker as Woody Allen or Mel Brooks, the three wrote for comedian Sid Caesar in the 1950s. That is a shame. Reiner directed some very good comedies; "Oh, God!" (1977), "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982), "All of Me" (1984), and "Where's Poppa?" (1970). "That Old Feeling" isn't at the standard of those movies, but, by this point in his career Reiner didn't have anything to prove and could direct a lark such as this.
Posts
