Perez plays this part in monotone nastiness with the volume turned on high. Just listening to her makes you want to flee the theater, screaming. And then there's the matter of Charlie's having married Muriel in the first place. A cop who helps blind people cross the street and won't buy coffee without leaving a tip could never, ever have fallen for Muriel, so their parting is neither funny nor sad, just overdue. His pairing with Yvonne is just right.
Gentle guy meets gentle gal.
But sweet romance doesn't stand a chance in the face of the ravenous tornado who dominates and then kills the movie. Flowers can't grow under the treads of a bulldozer. Nicolas Cage, a good actor with a fine track record, seems to weary of trying to make himself heard and settles into flatness. Wendell Pierce makes Bo, Charlie's sidekick, a warm-hearted charmer whose smile lights the world at the sight of season tickets for the Knicks. It takes a lot of nerve to imitate the world of Jimmy Stewart and Tom Hanks, where chemistry and subtlety are the ingredients of sweet comedy.