Saturday, July 6, 2013

Lost in America (1985)

Director: Albert Brooks                                Writers: Albert Brooks & Monica Johnson
Film Score: Arthur B. Rubinstein                  Cinematography: Eric Saarinen
Starring: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty, Michael Greene and Tom Tarpey

This is what I consider the best Albert Brooks film of all time. Despite his more commercial success with Defending Your Life, I think Lost in America is Brooks at his peak. His previous film, Modern Romance, was nearly as good but probably too edgy to be as popular as it should have been. This one hits the mark on every level and is one of the best cerebral comedies of all time. Brooks plays the creative director of a large ad agency in L.A. He and his wife, Julie Hagerty, are planning to move into a new house when he gets his promotion. The only problem is, when he gets to work he finds out that he’s being transferred to New York. In one of the best office scenes since Tootsie, he quits in a rage and goes to his wife’s work asking her to quit as well.

Brooks and Hagerty then liquidate all of their assets, buy a motorhome and decide to roam the country for the rest of their lives. But the first place they decide to stop is Las Vegas, so they can get remarried. And that’s when disaster hits. Brooks is know for his self-deprecating humor and a mere summary of events is nothing close to conveying the comedic aspects of his character. Another aspect of his films that is so tremendous is the casting. In this one he gets Garry Marshall to play the pit boss at the casino and he is incredibly funny. Tom Tarpey has a brief role as a fellow ad exec, but still make the most of it. Michael Cornelison is the front desk clerk at The Desert Inn, and Donald Gibb is great as the ex-convict who takes Hagerty for a ride. But the best casting choice of all was Julie Hagerty as his wife, building on her popularity in the Airplane disaster spoofs. She’s brilliant in the role and is still Brooks’ best leading lady.

The film won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay for Brooks and his co-author Monica Johnson, and it’s also on the American Film Institute’s top one hundred comedy films of all time. After the success of Lost in America, Brooks worked for James L. Brooks (no relation) in his most widely seen role in Broadcast News. From there it would be his most commercially successful picture, Defending Your Life before returning to incredibly artistic comedies that received far less recognition than they should have: The Muse, the remake of The In-Laws, and the intimate and breathtaking My First Mister. There’s not much left to say. Brooks is obviously not for everyone or he would be way more popular. But if you are fortunate enough to get his humor, there is no one working in films who is funnier, and Lost in America is the quintessential example of his comedic genius.

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