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He
Said, She Said (1990)
It might be easy to dismiss this as a "gimmick" film,
it it's stars weren't so engaging in their roles. Also
helpful is the passage of time, which has made 3 of
it's second bananas big stars.
The film is about a couple who write opposing Op/Ed
pieces for a Baltimore paper. Eventually, they take
the show to television. The gimmick is that the film
mirrors this, although we don't realize it, until halfway
through the run time. The film starts with an incident
that leads male star Kevin Bacon down a path of flashbacks
that tell the couple's story. Of course, the second
half of the film switches this procedure and we see
the story from the female lead's perspective, anchored
by Elizabeth Perkins. The film wisely doesn't travel
over the exact same ground but is clever enough to show
us the reality behind some of the situations presented
from Bacon's point of view.
The concept comes from a real life incident where
married couple, Ken Kwapis and Marisa Silver were relating
their story of how they met to friends and found that
they each had different concepts. Here they each helm
the respective gender's story sequence. The piece, it
should be said however, is written by a man, Brian Hohlfeld.
The film is weird, on a quite personal level, for
me. First is a plot device which has Bacon's character
wake up at 4:15am on several occasions in a deep sweat
over where his life is at this particular moments. He
questions his choices. I myself have woken up thinking
somewhat similar thoughts on occasion, though not at
a particular time, and even incorporated my thoughts
on this in my screenplay, "Keokuk." Also, this leads
to a sequence where Perkins wakes up right after one
of these episodes. Well actually, she is supposedly
kind of sleep-walking. She starts spouting something
about needing "cheesecake." This is reminiscent of a
episode in my life where a friend of mine was sleeping
and we woke him up asking, "Where's the cheesecake."
His responses were hilarious. We've often joked about
"cheesecake" since.
Anyway, back to the film. It features three younger
actors before they became stars. Nathan Lane is fraught
with comedic frantic energy as the Station Manager where
the TV show is taped. It's easy to see his possibilities
for the future as a wonderful comedic star. Sharon Stone
is treated rather badly by the script as she must play
a easy girlfriend from Bacon's past. She does, however,
get a touching moment towards the film's end. Meanwhile
Anthony LaPaglia is almost unrecognizable as the TV
show's director. He is on screen quite a bit but has
very few lines.
"He Said, She Said" isn't a great film. It isn't funny
really. It's just a nice romantic film for heterosexuals.
It works.
Note:
Also with Phil Leeds, Van Dyke Parks, and with a cameo
by Leeza Gibbons and John Tesh from their days on "ET."
(Review written in 1997)
Report
Card
Script:
B+
Acting: B+
Cinematography\Lighting: C
Special Effects\Make Up: C
Music:
C
Final
Grade: B
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