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THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS
Despite some cliched plotting and fuzzy characterizations, the 1989 melodrama with music called The Fabulous Baker Boys is worth a look due to a dazzling performance from the leading lady and a pair of acting brothers, teamed onscreen for the first and only time.
Jeff and Beau Bridges star as Jack and Frank Baker, respectively, brothers who have a second rate piano playing lounge act whose work is beginning to dry up. Frank decides they need to breathe new life into the act by a hiring a singer and after auditioning 37 girls, they hire the 38th...an ex-prostitute named Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer) who does bring a freshness to the act but complicates the relationship between the brothers as well.
Director-writer Steve Kloves has the germ of a really wonderful movie here and there is a spark of originality in what is presented, as we didn't get the expected romantic triangle that the premise implies. Frank and Jack are very different guys...Frank lives in the suburbs and has a wife and kids and, therefore, has no real interest in Susie other than business. Jack is an alcoholic loner whose best friends are a black lab named Eddie and a 12 year old latch key kid who lives upstairs and the slow burn between Jack and Susie becomes the central story here, but there are unexplained complications that keep this slow burn positively deadening. It's clear from jump that Jack is a classic movie angry young man with issues that go far beyond sibling rivalry and alcoholism, but these issues remain an issue for the entire running time, making it hard to sympathize with the character at times, but the fact that he is being played by Jeff Bridges definitely helps.
The whole introduction of Susie into the lives of the Baker Boys smacks of cliche as well...it was just so predictable that we watch the guys listen to 37 girls sing and are about to walk out the door when Susie stumbles through the door, an hour and a half late, looking like she just rolled out of bed, and almost unintelligible because of her inability to stop chewing gum for more than 30 seconds. She takes the gum out of her mouth long enough to belt out "More than you Know" and a star is born. Not really sure what the point was of making the character a former prostitute either...why was a woman with pipes like this earning a living on her back? I also had a hard time buying that this ex-prostie, 20 minutes after joining the act, was all of a sudden an expert on nightclubs and show business.
All that aside, the novelty of watching Jeff and Beau Bridges work together onscreen for the first and only time was a gimmick that completely worked and every moment they shared onscreen was completely believable and their chemistry sometimes overshadowed some really cliched writing and Pfeiffer was a revelation here, in a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Pfeiffer was even more effective than the brothers in overcoming the cliched elements of her character and delivered a true movie star performance that also showcased her severely underrated and sometimes forgotten vocal talent...her renditions of "The Look of Love", and "Can't Take My Eyes off of You" were stylishly original and her steamy rendition of "Makin Whoopee" atop Jack's piano is worth the price of admission alone.
The film is beautiful to look at, featuring Oscar-nominated cinematography and film editing, as well as Dave Grusin's jazzy score, not to mention some very effective ivory tinkling from the brothers Bridges, who spent six months taking piano lessons in preparation for this film and their homework really paid off. This film is not as good as it should have been, but it's still worth a look.
Despite some cliched plotting and fuzzy characterizations, the 1989 melodrama with music called The Fabulous Baker Boys is worth a look due to a dazzling performance from the leading lady and a pair of acting brothers, teamed onscreen for the first and only time.
Jeff and Beau Bridges star as Jack and Frank Baker, respectively, brothers who have a second rate piano playing lounge act whose work is beginning to dry up. Frank decides they need to breathe new life into the act by a hiring a singer and after auditioning 37 girls, they hire the 38th...an ex-prostitute named Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer) who does bring a freshness to the act but complicates the relationship between the brothers as well.
Director-writer Steve Kloves has the germ of a really wonderful movie here and there is a spark of originality in what is presented, as we didn't get the expected romantic triangle that the premise implies. Frank and Jack are very different guys...Frank lives in the suburbs and has a wife and kids and, therefore, has no real interest in Susie other than business. Jack is an alcoholic loner whose best friends are a black lab named Eddie and a 12 year old latch key kid who lives upstairs and the slow burn between Jack and Susie becomes the central story here, but there are unexplained complications that keep this slow burn positively deadening. It's clear from jump that Jack is a classic movie angry young man with issues that go far beyond sibling rivalry and alcoholism, but these issues remain an issue for the entire running time, making it hard to sympathize with the character at times, but the fact that he is being played by Jeff Bridges definitely helps.
The whole introduction of Susie into the lives of the Baker Boys smacks of cliche as well...it was just so predictable that we watch the guys listen to 37 girls sing and are about to walk out the door when Susie stumbles through the door, an hour and a half late, looking like she just rolled out of bed, and almost unintelligible because of her inability to stop chewing gum for more than 30 seconds. She takes the gum out of her mouth long enough to belt out "More than you Know" and a star is born. Not really sure what the point was of making the character a former prostitute either...why was a woman with pipes like this earning a living on her back? I also had a hard time buying that this ex-prostie, 20 minutes after joining the act, was all of a sudden an expert on nightclubs and show business.
All that aside, the novelty of watching Jeff and Beau Bridges work together onscreen for the first and only time was a gimmick that completely worked and every moment they shared onscreen was completely believable and their chemistry sometimes overshadowed some really cliched writing and Pfeiffer was a revelation here, in a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Pfeiffer was even more effective than the brothers in overcoming the cliched elements of her character and delivered a true movie star performance that also showcased her severely underrated and sometimes forgotten vocal talent...her renditions of "The Look of Love", and "Can't Take My Eyes off of You" were stylishly original and her steamy rendition of "Makin Whoopee" atop Jack's piano is worth the price of admission alone.
The film is beautiful to look at, featuring Oscar-nominated cinematography and film editing, as well as Dave Grusin's jazzy score, not to mention some very effective ivory tinkling from the brothers Bridges, who spent six months taking piano lessons in preparation for this film and their homework really paid off. This film is not as good as it should have been, but it's still worth a look.