In many ways I’m a product of the 80s and I like to think I’ve caught ‘em all, but I know that’s not the case. I have been meaning to sit down with Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild for a long time, and I really wanted to like it more, but I’m sad to say it doesn’t really work as a whole. What begins as a funny, sexy romp takes a drastic tone shift at the midpoint, but it’s hard to take it both ways at once. It might have had a bit of a cut to it when it was first released, but given this awkward split-personality it doesn’t nearly stack up against the much edgier romps that succeeded it (I’m thinking Drugstore Cowboy, True Romance, Natural Born Killers, etc.)
After a quick and unbelievable opening with almost no character introduction we are thrust into a joyride with free-spirit con artist Lulu - or is it Audrey? (Melanie Griffith). Taken along for the ride is Charlie Driggs (Jeff Daniels) the uptight “closet rebel,” who steps out of his shell for a bit of fun and gets caught in the riptide. Griffith was entering into that short window when she still had a breathy appeal, and Daniels is mostly likable, but sometimes the nebbishness overwhelms the heart of the character. He’s done much better work on both ends of the drama/comedy spectrum.
The two share half-a-movie worth of hijinks and start to find a little romance before Ray (Ray Liotta) shows up and things take a turn into Sleeping with the Enemy territory. The underlying theme of Something Wild seems to be that sometimes stealing is okay, as long as you have a sense of humorous flourish when committing the crime, and as long you’re not a violent psychopath at heart.
For me, the saving grace of the film is the soundtrack. A couple years earlier, Demme helmed the monumental Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, so it’s no surprise that his ear was tuned to that slightly offbeat moment in 80s music, with a splash of reggae here and a taste of nerd-wave on the side. We get cuts from David Byrne, X, Big Audio Dynamite, The Motels, Oingo-Boingo, Jimmy Cliff and New Order, with the highlight being a stellar scene with maybe one of the best Movie High School Reunion Bands ever, The Feelies.
Something Wild, while not exactly wild per se, may be a movie I will check out again later to find that it’s grown on me. For now I’ll just hang onto the few fun moments and the excellent sounds.
2012-1-12 jmm #6
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