#49(b) Town and Country (Wes)

Town and Country

So if you read our Showgirls reviews (see here and here) then you’d know that we failed to get our movie once again, so we’re back on the reserve list of movies. Thankfully the quality of these movies should in theory be better than the ones we’re currently watching, but since they nearly made the list, that doesn’t say much. So when I looked up next movie on IMDB I was shocked to see the calibre of actors who starred. Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and Charlton Heston amongst others. Surely Town and Country couldn’t be THAT bad?

New York architect Porter Stoddard (Warren Beatty) is married to Ellie (Diane Keaton), but having an affair with Cellist Alex (Nastassja Kinski). Peter isn’t the only person having an affair with someone who has a large instrument between their legs, as his (secretly gay) best friend Griffin (Garry Shandling) is also having an affair. Griffin’s wife Mona (Goldie Hawn) wants a divorce after catching him and goes to her childhood home to get away from everything where she and Porter have a brief night of pleasure after getting drunk. Porter runs off with Griffin to Sun Valley to get away from their troubles where Porter manages to sleep with both Eugenie (Andie MacDowell) and Auburn (Jenna Elfman). Porter and Griffin eventually return to New York where they must face the consequences for their infidelities, whilst I continue to face the consequences of getting drunk and agreeing to watch the movies on this stupid list.

  

I wonder if Town and Country was named so that it sounded more like a British movie, as that’s clearly what it wants to be. Unfortunately for director Peter Chelsom the writers Michael Laughlin and Buck Henry are no Richard Curtis when it comes down to comedy. This movie is less Notting Hill and more Not-On-My-Watch. Whereas the best British romantic comedies manage to charm with an often self-deprecating humour mixed with the ridiculous situations people find themselves in, Town and Country either has no real subtlety at all or tries to be so subtle you miss everything the writer’s thought was funny.

It had more in common with the sex farce series from the seventies, Confessions Of… than movies like Love Actually, relying on hiding in the wardrobe style jokes for its farcical humour. Basically this film could be looked upon as an American version of Four Weddings and a Funeral. Not in the story itself, but in the fact that Beatty has four affairs and then realises that this movie marks the end of his acting career.

That this was Warren Beatty’s last movie, which perhaps is telling in itself. Maybe he realised that playing the same womanising character that he played throughout his career at 64 was something that just wasn’t playing with audiences anymore. It’s a shame that this had to be his swansong, as Beatty had a mostly solid career before this with Bonnie and Clyde, McCabe and Mrs Miller and The Parallax View all being flat out classics. Unfortunately for Beatty Town and Country is much more like Ishtar than any of those, and his performance is just embarrassing.

Whilst wealth and power may be an aphrodisiac that often makes for otherwise unlikely couplings, a near pension age Beatty spending the whole movie seducing his way through pretty much the entire female cast is unbelievable. Just as unbelievable as all of Beatty’s conquests all ending up in exactly the same bathroom together (in the traditional farcical sense) or that Beatty’s hair colour is natural in this movie.

For all that the acting in this movie is as you would expect from actors of such high regard. Whilst none of the performances in this movie were groundbreaking, none of them were particularly bad. Sure Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn and Andie MacDowell have been playing pretty much the same characters throughout most of their careers, and Charlton Heston (as Eugenie’s dad) basically plays himself as a gun obsessed, angry man, but at least they can act, which is a nice change of pace from most of the movies on this list.

I wouldn’t call it one of the worst ever movies, but it’s not exactly something anyone should ever go out of their way to watch. Town and Country is a soulless comedy, which misses out on the laughs, and features a bunch of characters you feel nothing for. Unfortunately even the best actors in the world can’t take a bad script and turn it into a work of art, and this isn’t even the screen equivalent of some dogs playing pool.