Product: Peggy Sue Got Married [VHS] (1986)
Rating: 5.0
ThisIsWhatTimeTravel IsAllAbout(notgoingbacktothefuture)
This is a suprisingly poignant, genuine, affecting movie and head and shoulders above the over-rated 'Back to the Future'.(Probably because the heroine was alive in the time period she returns to and this gives that time period much greater poignancy, not to mention relevance, than the reliably annoying Michael J. Fox gives to his parent's era. The latter makes mid-50's people seem like idiots because he wasn't born then and clearly knew nothing about those times. I didn't find that dissonance oddly charming or whatever it was supposed to be - just annoying as hell AND PAINFUL to watch. Alot of the characters in that movie were weird, as in unreal, not just strange, and the movie depended on this weirdness for its content, not to mention its (questionable) entertainment value.Peggy Sue is a smooth-flowing exploration of the early 60's from the perspective of the mid 80's combined with teenage experiences from the perspective of a middle-aged mother. This movie has alot of fine moments, as when Kathleen Turner talks to her grandmother on the phone who was deceased in the present time. I've never seen any other time travel movie that makes you gulp like that. Kathleen Turner is great, as are all the supporting actors. Nicholas Cage over-acts and doesn't seem plausible (in real life he wasn't actually born in 1960 and had no feelings for it and actually acted like it was more like 1957 with the hair style and antics), but I guess with his uncle directing it, all that acting was unavoidable. He couldn't ruin this movie but it would have been even better with a more plausible, subtle, even more "square" guy. I really liked the nerdy genius accomplice and the beatnik boyfriend, as these people are certifiably genuine early 1960's people. The Mom, the Dad, the sister, the girlfriends - who wasn't good?This movie is a straight-down-the-middle time trip for baby-boomers and it takes you out of the park. It's filled with pleasing and facile scenes. It is very well-directed and effortless in capturing its goal.