**** (out of ****)
Francis Ford Coppola. When I was growing up that was the name of a giant. He directed "The Godfather" (1972)! Even though the movie was released 11 years before I was born it was revered as an American classic. A masterpiece. It belonged in a rarified air with "Casablanca" (1943), "Citizen Kane" (1941), "Gone with the Wind" (1939) and "Singin' in the Rain" (1952).
It was sad for me to learn of the difficult times a great artist such as Coppola had to endure during the 1980s. Not only did Coppola direct "The Godfather" but he also directed the Academy Award winning best picture sequel, "The Godfather Pt. 2" (1974) along with "The Conversation" (1974) and ended the 1970s with "Apocalypse Now" (1979). Each of those films were nominated for a best picture Academy Award. Two of them ("The Godfather" movies) did win. Coppola received three best director nominations - only for "The Conversation" was he not nominated. He was an auteur. A force in American cinema. And then the 1980s happened. The new decade didn't start off well. Coppola was practically immediately met with financial ruin in preparation of his movie "One from the Heart" (1981) He made the mistake Mel Brooks warned us about in "The Producers" (1968) - never put up your own money. "Apocalypse" had its own notorious production problems but the bad luck kept following Coppola. A few years after the troubles of "One from the Heart" came "The Cotton Club" (1984) which brought about lawsuits and was a box-office disappointment. In-between those two films were "Rumble Fish" (1983) and "The Outsiders" (1983). They were met with mixed reviews - back in the days when reviews mattered - and neither did anything to restore the name of Francis Ford Coppola.
And then came a charming time traveling comedy, "Peggy Sue Got Married" (1986). Here is a film about the past, disillusionment, age, destiny, and second chances. How fitting Coppola would direct this film and he wasn't the original choice. The film was a box-office success grossing more than 40 million in the U.S. and went on to earn three Academy Award nominations, including one for Kathleen Turner's performance. Turner was also nominated for a Golden Globe where the film was nominated for best picture as well. Famed movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both declared it one of the best films of 1986!
Some of the thunder was stolen from under "Peggy Sue Got Married", having been released one year after "Back to the Future" (1985), that other time traveling nostalgic comedy. That movie was the highest grossing movie at the world-wide box office. It's doubtful Coppola's movie would have been able to match the $300 plus million "Back to the Future" grossed but the two movies were compared to each other by the critics (AKA sheep). That may have painted "Peggy Sue" as an attempt by Hollywood to cash in on the success of "Future". But dare I say, "Peggy Sue Got Married" is an emotionally richer and more complex film.
Of course the time traveling concept wasn't anything new - Mark Twain published "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" in 1889 and like that novel, "Peggy Sue" makes social commentary contrasting modern day 80s society against a 1960 back drop that already had social customs that seemed outdated.
The movie begins with Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) preparing to attend her 25th high school reunion. She and her husband, Charlie (Nicolas Cage) were high school sweethearts that are now getting divorced, after Charlie cheated on Peggy Sue with a younger woman. All of this dampens Peggy Sue's mood as she doesn't feel like explaining to all of their old high school friends she and Charlie are done. But her daughter, Beth (Helen Hunt) encourages her to go. Beth will be her mom's date for the evening.
At the reunion Coppola displays the balancing act between nostalgia and disillusionment. We have a tendency to bask in the thought the world was a little better when we were younger. Times were simpler. But there are also the memories of the pains of fitting in high school and the ways kids treated one another. We also see what the lives of others have become and how sometimes everything has worked out as planned. We see who became a "success" and who rolled snake eyes. And would we have treated people a certain way knowing now what they became? How would our lives be different if we could change the past?
As this dichotomy of emotions is taking place a king and queen is crowned at the reunion with Peggy Sue being named queen. It is all too much of a spectacle for Peggy Sue looking out at all of her friends and Charlie. As she stands on stage, she faints. When she awakens it is 1960. She is a teenager in high school who has just participated in her school's blood drive. This may help explain why Peggy Sue is not acting "normal" as if everything is new to her.
Of course what Peggy Sue and the audience is thinking is, is this real? Did Peggy Sue actually go back in time or is this a dream? Once the gimmick of the situation wears off then the emotional and dramatic possibilities of such a scenario set in. If we were to be able to go back in time, and still have our adult brain, not only are we younger but just think, you'll be able to see your family again. You'd be able to see relatives that have passed away over the years. These moments would now have deeper meaning as you may find yourself giving them a bit of a longer hug. You'd be able to met your first love and experience the joy (?) of teen love again. Relive the the moment of your first date and first kiss. In the case of Peggy Sue, she will decide if she should marry Charlie again knowing that their marriage ends in divorce.
It's not all sentimental hogwash in "Peggy Sue Got Married" however as Coppola and the movie are able to have fun with the time traveling plot device. It is frustrating to be a woman trapped in a teenager's body. In your mind your an adult but to the world you are a child. It gives you a whole new appreciation for adolescence! This creates a lot of comedic situations. Then there is the fun of looking back on 1960 fades that generated so much excitement but by 1986 we knew didn't last and became pop culture failures. In one scene dad (Don Murray) surprises the family with a new car purchase. What could get a big laugh from a 1986 audience that screams auto manufacture failure? You guessed it! He brings home an Edsel. Which if we are being factually accurate was already on the downslide by 1960 - the last year the vehicle was produced. But I digress! There's also the fun of becoming the "inventor" of things to come like pantyhose, hi-tech or songwriting. When Peggy Sue gives musician boyfriend Charlie lyrics to a song she has "written" Charlie makes some edits. The song was the Beatles' "She Loves Me". Charlie's brilliant edits? Change the "yeah"s to "ooh"
But it is the more serious side of the story and the themes it presents that make "Peggy Sue" such a rewarding experience. By the end of the movie I was left with two thoughts. The role of destiny in our lives - we have ended up where we are in life because that is where we were meant to be. And two, the trick of life is to learn from the past not to be stuck in it. The past can't change the present but the present can change the future.
For as much I may want to lavish all praise on Francis Ford Coppola and regard him as responsible for the success of "Peggy Sue Got Married" most likely that isn't the case. A lot of credit must be thrown towards Kathleen Turner. She was a hot commodity in the 1980s. Some of her on-screen successes included "Body Heat" (1981), "Romancing the Stone" (1984) and "Prizzi's Honor" (1985). She would end the decade doing voice-over work in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988) as Jessica Rabbit and appeared in "The War of the Roses" (1989). She was in the right place at the right time. Who knows what would have happened if the original choice, Debra Winger, had remained in the role.
This is not to suggest merely box-office appeal made Turner correct for the role. Turner delivers a great performance. She essentially is playing two characters and manages to capture the complexities of each. Each character has their own personality traits and mannerisms. Turner's teenage Peggy Sue has a certain innocence to her. The adult Peggy Sue learns to function as a teenager and knows what is expected of her. Peggy Sue starts to behave like a teenager, hiding cigarettes from her parents for example and swooning over the school's rebellious bad boy - a beatnik. Turner creates a rich character that becomes instantly relatable.
For as wonderful as Turner is to watch, the weak link is Nicolas Cage - nephew of Coppola. According to Cage he turned down the role of Charlie several times. Why on earth would Coppola insist on casting him? Familial loyalty? It most certainly wasn't name recognition. Cage wasn't a name yet. It was through films like "Peggy Sue" and "The Cotton Club" that Coppola hoisted Cage onto the American movie going public, just as he did his sister (Talia Shire) and his daughter (Sofia Coppola, who also has a role in this film). Cage makes the unusual decision to play the character as Jerry Lewis in "The Nutty Professor" (1963) but not as Buddy Love but as the nerdy professor. Cage delivers his lines with a weird nasally voice. It isn't believable at all. In Cage's hands it is easy to look past any dimension to the character. In another actor's capable hands "Peggy Sue Got Married" could have been a lovely movie about two people learning to love each other again. Luckily Turner can carry the film on her shoulders. There is also the issue of Cage's make-up. I am now around the age of Cage's character. Do I look this awful and no one is telling me? They have him almost balding and with grey hair. He must have lead a hard life!
Reading contemporary reviews and viewer comments on Coppola's masterpiece, one comes across some negative critiques. This has to do with politics and I believe a misreading of the movie. Some viewers miss Coppola's social commentary. It is subtle and a wonderful example of why artists like Coppola are vastly superior to any "artist" working today. Pay attention to the way Coppola presents Peggy Sue's mother (Barbara Harris). Notice the action in the breakfast scene as mom is constantly serving and never has a moment to sit and eat herself. Peggy Sue calls this out. Notice the relationship between Peggy Sue's parents. Notice how Peggy Sue's friends (Joan Allen and Catherine Hicks) have their lives all planned out based upon their understanding of what society expects of them. Listen to the dialogue between Peggy Sue and Charlie as teenagers arguing. Check out the moment in a R&B club when Peggy Sue and a date are toasting she makes a comment about freedom for all of us. Peggy Sue is sitting in a club surrounded by black characters. No need to mention the Civil Rights movement or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We got the message. Moment after moment Coppola is contrasting the 1960s to the 80s indicating how far we have come. Two years prior to the release of "Peggy Sue" for example Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman ever on a "major political party's" presidential ticket. She was selected as Walter Mondale's VP.
The difference between Coppola and "Peggy Sue Got Married" compared to what a modern day "artist" would do, is today the film would be a piece of social activism. It would hit the audience hard, repeatedly, with its message of how awful the 1960s were and don't live up to the values of today. "Peggy Sue" would make forceful, heavy-handed commentaries on women's rights and minority rights. Gone would be any notion of joyful nostalgia for the time period. It would be a social satire reinforcing perceived negative stereotypes about the past. Coppola, being a true artist, doesn't need to beat us over the head with messaging. Unfortunately, it seems, a modern day audience needs everything spelled out for them. Subtly isn't their strong suite.
Coppola also has something else up his sleeve and a different, more positive message to leave audiences with. Coppola wants to give us life lessons. "Peggy Sue Got Married" wants to be the 1980s version of "Our Town", Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning stage drama first performed in 1938. The play, which was later adapted into a feature film in 1940, teaches us the importance of learning to appreciate life. To make every moment count. We mustn't hold on to pain but learn to accept and adapt to the choices we make in life. That is a lesson for Peggy Sue, Coppola and the audience.
Like nearly every movie from the past, "Peggy Sue Got Married" is a smarter and more observant film than today's audience may give it credit for. This is a charming, heartfelt, humorous, sweet film carried by a wonderful performance from Kathleen Turner. It is among Coppola's best films.
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