Dutch (1991)

(On TV, November 2019) It’s not hard to watch Dutch and wonder what screenwriter-producer John Hughes was thinking in putting together the story. As a buddy-comedy road movie on the eve of Thanksgiving, it clearly apes his own Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It does crank up the drama by featuring not two strangers brought together by circumstances, but a gruff construction man trying to bond with a bratty teenager who may become his step-son. At that point, the film could have gone anywhere as a zany farce or a manipulative offering … and it does. Meaning that we get people shot in the groin with a BB gun, plenty of crazy adventures, quite a bit of personal property destruction, and the heartwarming aw-they-really-love-each-other maudlin moments in the end. The tonal control isn’t there from one moment to another, and if Dutch hangs together, it’s thanks to Ed O’Neill doing his best in a role that asks him to be both a credible middle-aged man and a cartoonish butt of physical comedy. Intensely predictable in structure but chaotic in a scene-to-scene scope, Dutch should work in the end but doesn’t feel as if it has a middle.