Product: Peggy Sue Got Married [VHS] (1986)
Rating: 3.0
Turner is practically the only reason to watch this middlebrow film...
Nothing more than lightweight Coppola; at times `Peggy Sue Got Married' can be a little too light. It doesn't mean that this is a total waste of time (the lead performance by Kathleen Turner is a gem and deserved that Oscar nomination it was handed) but to say that this is a great comedy is stretching it a bit thin. Maybe that's the real problem.The film itself is a bit thin.The film opens with Peggy Sue Bodell going to her 25 year High School reunion fresh off her split from high school sweetheart Charlie Bodell. He cheated and treated her badly and so, with a divorce in the wings, she attends her reunion with her daughter hoping to have a good time and forget about him for the evening, but everything reminds her of her past and soon she is overwhelmed with anxiety.Then she faints and wakes up a teenager again, back in high school with the chance to do it all over.The main issue I have is with the script, which doesn't really seem to have a point. Sure, it is supposed to give Peggy a chance to decide if she really wants to live the life she picked for herself, but really; her end decision makes the whole film null and void in my opinion. There just seems to be no real progression of character. Peggy keeps telling others that she is an adult with life experiences and thus she can make a more informed decision now about how she should have lived her life; but she never makes that informed decision. Regardless though, Kathleen Turner sells it gloriously. We believe her, even if the script does not. She is hilarious and honest throughout, capturing the innocence of childhood with the towering knowledge of adulthood. You can feel the weight of the truth on her shoulders yet she manages to mask it with the carelessness of someone experiencing life for the first time.If it wasn't for Turner I would have turned this off.Nicolas Cage is not an actor I like. I think he was amazing in three films (count em'...1, 2, 3) and I think he has single-handedly destroyed every other movie he's walked onto. This is not really an exception. He actually gives a decent performance, but his performance is so overly annoying that he makes it hard to pay attention. I think my wife described him as `disgusting' here and I somewhat have to agree.Look out for a slew of familiar faces, all before they became really familiar. Aside from Turner and Cage there is screen goddess Joan Allen in a small role as Peggy's friend Maddy, as well as Jim Carry who plays Charlie's friend Walter and even Sophia Coppola (amazing director, horrible actress) plays Peggy's kid sister.In the end I say, watch the movie for Turner. It's lightweight fare that can be entertaining, and some of the dialog is witty and fresh, but don't expect anything remotely profound (which is sad because it had the promise to be really smart).