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Actors: Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Tea Leoni, Alan Alda, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Lily Tomlin
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Flirting With Disaster |
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Young Mel Coplin and his wife Nancy (Stiller and Arquette) haven't been able to agree on a name for their 4-month-old son. Since he was adopted, Mel is convinced he must find his real parents, and then he will know what to name the boy. With the help of an incompetent (but extremely luscious) student-psychologist and part-time adoption agent, Tina Kalb (Leoni), the Coplins set out from New York City on a cross-country trip to find Mel's folks. Tina will use the adventure for her dissertation project, so she volunteers to pay for the trip. Mel's nasty adoptive parents (Moore and Segal) are unsympathetic, and his real folks (Alda and Tomlin) turn up in remote New Mexico and are real oddballs. The sexual chemistry between Mel and Tina understandably heats up. Writer-director David O. Russell made this frantic 1996 comedy between his more unconventional "Spanking the Monkey" and "Three Kings." The cast is terrific and very game, but much of the humor consists of repetitive humilations of everyone, especially the hero, and can get to be a bit much.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Flirting With Disaster |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Comedy, primarily
Yes
Time/era of movie:
- 1980's-1999
Family, struggling with
Yes
Struggle with:
- Step Parent(s)
Road trip
Yes
Kind of comedy
- dysfunctional family
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) very skinny
Events of movie makes character more...
- irritated
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Jewish
How sensitive is this character?
- soggy whimpering jelly muffin
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Unclothed?
- very tight clothes
How much in movie?
- 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- West
- Northeast
Desert?
Yes
City?
Yes
City:
- New York
Farm/Ranch?
Yes
Farm/Ranch:
- ranch
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Movie makes you feel...
- all mixed up
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- sex under blankets
Any profanity?
- Some foul language
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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