Arthur Hiller

  • Outrageous Fortune (1987)

    Outrageous Fortune (1987)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, October 2020) Whenever Bette Midler is on-screen, it shouldn’t be surprising if the result is loud messy comedy. The premise of Outrageous Fortune is simple enough to qualify as high-concept: When two women with opposite personalities discover that they’re dating the same man and he disappears, they go chasing after him and discover that he’s a spy. Cue the arguments, the chase sequences, the cross-country scenes and the shifts from comedy to thriller to action and back. It’s all handled with a veteran’s professionalism (but not energy) by director Arthur Hiller. The highlight here is clearly Midler with a typically brassy, brash performance that clearly outshines that of co-star Shelley Long who must settle for being the straight woman of the comedy duo. In many ways, Outrageous Fortune is a disappointment—it’s overly familiar in places, and not audacious enough in others: the ending is a bit of a deflating balloon, and the supporting stereotypes it perpetuates have not aged well. But there’s Midler, always Midler—it may not be worth re-watching, but she’s worth watching at least once.

  • The Lonely Guy (1984)

    The Lonely Guy (1984)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2020) The mid-1980s were about as good as things ever got in terms of pure film comedy from Steve Martin, and The Lonely Guy is a fairly representative example (I didn’t say the best) of the kind of comedy he was turning going for—familiar yet off-kilter, self-satisfied, ingratiating but quite funny if you’re on the right wavelength. This time, Martin turns to romantic comedy as the clothesline for the silliness in store—focusing on the plight of a newly single guy trying to find love in Manhattan. The difference between 1980s Martin and later-day Martin is that the earlier comedian wasn’t afraid to be more adventurous in his type of humour. Not everything works, obviously, but with director Arthur Hiller, there’s an effort to try a few things, be absurd, play with expectations and even revisit old gags. I found it all quite amusing. I remembered the restaurant “dining alone” scene from childhood, but not the rest of The Lonely Guy.