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Review: Frankie and Johnny Are Married (*** 1/2)



 
 
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Old June 15th 04, 11:52 PM
Steve Rhodes
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Default Review: Frankie and Johnny Are Married (*** 1/2)

FRANKIE AND JOHNNY ARE MARRIED
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2


Michael Pressman is a very busy television director with shows like "Chicago
Hope" and "Boston Public" on his extensive resume. He and Lisa Chess, his
wife for the past ten years, share many things, including a son, a home,
modest savings and careers "in the business" -- show business. What they've
never shared is working together, marrying his directing skills with her
acting talents. The movie FRANKIE AND JOHNNY ARE MARRIED is a wonderfully
entertaining, hilariously funny and sweetly touching story about their
experiences working together on a play. Since the play was a disaster in
several dimensions, although not all, it was a gutsy decision on their part
to make a just slightly fictional movie about the making of the play.



Their marriage is obviously solid and their love considerable, but Lisa's
career just isn't clicking. She laments that Michael is successful while
she is struggling and unhappy in her professional life. She keeps trying
out for parts she doesn't especially want and getting turned down in favor
of better known actresses. Casting directors have good words to say about
her acting -- as will you -- but, nevertheless, don't pick her.



With their fifteen-thousand dollar IRS refund, Michael wants them to
bankroll an "equity-waver" play called, "Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de
Lune," which was a popular play in New York in the 1980s and is a favorite
of Lisa's. A two-person romantic comedy/drama, it takes place during one
night in Frankie's apartment. About the fear of intimacy between two
middle-age lovers, the play has sharply written roles for both sexes. Lisa
thinks she has the perfect actor, Alan Rosenberg, to play the part of
Frankie, since they once did a run-through of parts of it many years ago.
Alan Rosenberg plays himself, although, in real life, another actor played
opposite Lisa.



From the beginning the chemistry is good -- too good? -- between Lisa and
Alan, especially since the play opens in bed with the two characters having
graphic and noisy sex while completely nude. (The movie isn't the least bit
graphic although the emotions are honestly expressed.) "I've got to tell
you," Alan says to Michael when Lisa leaves the room after the play's first
reading, "I've got the hots for your wife. Are you okay with this?" Of
course, the men immediately do the macho thing, lying to each other and to
themselves, saying that they are both comfortable with the sexual chemistry
on the set and they both plan on being absolutely honest with each other at
all times. Right!



Producing a play on a shoestring turns out to cost a lot of shoestrings and
becomes an emotional as well as a financial drain on Michael and Lisa, with
the fifty-thousand dollar expense mark quickly passed. Profits? Forget it,
unless the play starts getting sold out and extended. Not too long before
opening, Michael finds that he has an increasingly mercurial and distracted
actor in Alan, who is working two other acting jobs at the same time. Alan,
who boasts that he is "one of the greatest actors of the American theater,"
can't remember his lines, but, that's no problem, he insists, because acting
is about more than being "word perfect." In fact, he begins to ridicule
Lisa for her obsession with getting her lines right. Alan wants them to
concentrate on the emotional subtext. A friend of Michael's, played by
Stephen Tobolowsky, advises him to "cut your losses and save your marriage,"
by canceling the play, since Michael's dream is turning into a real
nightmare.



The movie, even in its least hopeful moments, is always good-spirited and
naturally funny. The laughs are large, but the movie is so underscripted
that the lines sound like something a friend of yours might say. The movie
is also wonderful in the way it recreates the madness and mayhem of a small
production, where the infamous Murphy hangs out every day. Programs? Sure.
Oops, they were printed upside down, and the audience for the first night
has just arrived.



Perhaps the most amazing thing, given the divorce rate in Tinseltown, is
that Michael and Lisa survived their ordeal and lived to make a movie about.
They remain happily married. Bravo to them and to their delightful picture.
See it now before it vanishes from your town. Help them make their movie
the success that their play never was.



FRANKIE AND JOHNNY ARE MARRIED runs a mesmerizing 1:35. It is rated R for
"language including sexual references, and brief drug use" and would be
acceptable for teenagers.



The film opens in limited release in the United States on Friday, June 18,
2004. The movie was shown recently at the Camera Cinema Club
(http://www.cameracinemas.com) of Campbell and San Jose, where it was warmly
and enthusiastically received.



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