Peggy Sue Got Married
Tags: dramatic, romantic, alternate history

Plot synopsis:
Peggy Sue Bodell sets off for her 25-year high school reunion in 1985 with her daughter, Beth, as company. Peggy has just separated from her high school sweetheart, now husband, Charlie, and is wary of attending the reunion because of everyone questioning her about his absence as they have been married since Peggy became pregnant right after graduation.
She arrives at the reunion and is happy to reconnect with her old best friends, Maddy and Carol. Charlie unexpectedly arrives at the reunion, causing an awkward scene with Peggy ignoring him. The awkwardness is ended when the event MC announces the reunion’s "king and queen." The king is Richard Norvik, a former class geek turned billionaire inventor. Peggy is named the queen and walks on stage, but after they wheel out the reunion cake, she faints.
When Peggy wakes, she finds herself back in the spring of 1960 during her senior year of high school, having passed out after donating blood in the school gym (where the reunion was). She finds all of her friends that she just left to also be their teenage selves, not just her. Still in shock, she allows herself to be taken home while she sees her surroundings are the way they were 25 years before. After a rough first night, she decides to have fun with the experience and behave as if everything is normal. However, when given the chance to break up with Charlie, she thinks it might be best since she knows how it will end.
Peggy makes friends with Richard Norvik, the class geek (and future billionaire), to figure out what is going on with her. Charlie gets jealous when she ignores him at lunch and makes arrangements to meet Richard after school to discuss time travel with him. When she tells him her secret, at first he thinks it's a joke. However, she tells things about him and the world that she would not know if she were not from the future. Although Peggy has decided to break up with Charlie (and her eyes have been on Michael Fitzsimmons given this new chance), she's the only one who wants that.
One night after a party, Peggy decides to sleep with Charlie. He then flips out and reminds her that she had rebuffed him the weekend before and therefore believes she's playing games, then drives her home. Instead of going inside, she takes a walk and ends up at an all-night cafe. As she walks by, she sees Michael Fitzsimmons — the artsy loner in school she always wished she’d slept with - and goes in to talk to him. After finding out they have more in common than originally thought, they ride off on his motorcycle. In a field, they smoke weed and find out more about one another. When he asks if she is going to marry Charlie, she responds that she already did that and will not do it again. After he recites some of his poetry for her, they have sex.
Michael reveals that he wants her to go with him and another woman to Utah (where polygamy is legal) so they can marry and support him while he writes. After his revelation, she tells him he should go and to write about their night together. In the middle of their conversation, she hears a voice she recognizes singing. When she looks at the stage, she sees that it's Charlie and realizes that she did not know everything about him. Michael is upset, thinks that she declined his offer for Charlie and is ready to go. After they leave, it's shown that Charlie was singing as a audition for an agent and is rejected. The next day when Peggy goes to talk to Charlie, he lashes out at her and she gives him a song she "wrote" for him (which ends up being "She Loves You", by The Beatles). She then goes to Richard to say goodbye so she can stop messing up her life and everyone else's since the reason Charlie stopped singing was her becoming pregnant right before they graduated. Richard proposes, but she refuses because she does not want to marry anyone and he has to be valedictorian. Confused, she visits her grandparents for her birthday. After her grandparents tell her that her grandmother can see the future, she confides her story in them. Her grandfather and his lodge friends then try a strange séance ritual to send her back to 1985.
Peggy is then kidnapped by Charlie, leaving everyone at the Lodge thinking that the ritual worked. He tells her that he told his dad that he gave up singing and was given 10% of the business so he can support her. He then proposes and gives her the locket she wore at the beginning of the film. When she looks inside, she sees baby pictures of her and Charlie, which resemble their children. Peggy sees how much he loves her and how much she loves him, and they kiss. They begin to make love, which would again lead to Peggy getting pregnant and marrying him. In the next moment, Peggy is transported back to 1985.
Peggy awakes in a hospital, with Charlie at her side. He is deeply regretful of his adultery and tells Peggy he wants her back. When she questions him about Janet, he swears it's over. It seems there's hope for them reconciling when Peggy looks at Charlie with new eyes and (citing a reference from her grandfather who claimed that her grandmother's strudel kept the family together) says, "I'd like to invite you over to your house for dinner on Sunday with your kids. I'll make a strudel."

Review: If you liked the two movies I mentioned in my header, especially "Frequency" since it is about to be released on video - you will love this film!Kathleen Turner was excellent - I have seen Debra Winger (originally scheduled to play the title role) in several films, including "Terms of Endearment" and though I respect her as an actress, she just couldn't have done this part justice.
In the reunion of the twentieth-fifth anniversary of high school, the former popular student Peggy Sue, who is facing a divorce of her husband Charlie Bodell (Nicolas Cage), faints and wakes up in 1960.
Kathleen Turner is extremely beautiful in the lead role, and watching this movie in 2005, it is a great chance to see names like Jim Carrey, Joan Allen and Sofia Coppola twenty years ago in the beginning of their careers.
Too many scenes start the old water works for me.Peggy seeing her little sister for the first time, going into her old bedroom, and hearing her grandmother's voice on the phone are all quite touching.Call me crazy but I just love the moment where Charlie takes Peggy down into the basement and confronts her about what is going on.
When he leaves, Peggy opens a music box, pulls out a cigarette and lights it.Another special moment happens when Peggy smokes a joint and talks about what she'd like to be when she grows up, as she turns around and around under a starry sky.This is quite a good movie, filled with many special performances and scenes along the way..
Kathleen Turner is great in this movie, she more or less pulls off her task and is very believable as the teenager who gets to relive and, to some point, change and correct her past.
Francis Ford Coppola's talent for finding the perfect settings for his comic philosophic masterpiece is unerring throughout--even if he had to paint the streets in Petaluma purple just to get the exact effect that he wanted."Peggy Sue" would be very high on my all-time top 100 film list, if I had such a list.
She is now ready to step into her fate--her new enriched life (and there are also nuances of "It's a Wonderful Life" in the film).One last comment: nowadays, I cannot watch this "comedy" without tears in my eyes through pretty much the whole movie, and much of this effect is due to the masterful performance of Kathleen Turner as Peggy Sue. Turner is usually on the hysterical edge of breaking down, and her proximity to the precipice is a knot in my gut through the whole movie.
Kathleen Turner is wonderful as the 40-something year old mother of two who is in the process of getting divorced from her husband(Nicolas Cage), but gets hurled 25 years into the past when she passes out at her high school reunion.
Originally intended for Debra Winger, but Kathleen Turner is wonderful as the title character Peggy Sue. It's a time-travel movie about a 42 year old woman who gets transported back in time to high school (circa early 1960's).
A much more touching time travel film than Back to the Future -- Turner's character (an unhappy middle-aged woman) has the chance to re-live her high school days and do things differently only to end up making the same mistakes she made before.
I consider Peggy Sue Got Married as one of the all time great movies.
Other than this the movie is very enjoyable to watch on ones own, with that special partner or even a girls-night in.One of a number of time-travel movies PSGM leaves the primary character initially confused with being aware of both the past, in which they are now living, & the future they have apparently left; 13 Going On 30 is a much better example scoring a perfect 10.PSGM holds together well for an old movie & should form part of your DVD collection..
Yes, it's great to see Cage, Hunt et al in one of their earlier movies but for me, Turner was, as usual, wonderful and elevated the film considerably.
"Peggy Sue Got Married" is a time travel movie you wish you could actually do.
It tells the story of a middle age woman who mysteriously, travels back in time, to her high school days where she attempts not to make the same mistake twice, i.e. marry her high school sweetheart and  end up with an unhappy marriage.The movie never fails to bring me to tears in its poignant moments as Peggy Sue revisits her past- an early scene in which she speaks to her long dead grandmother on the phone is heartbreaking as is the scene in which she begs her soon -to-be husband, to give up his dreams of being a rock and roll singer because it will bring him grown up frustration and disappointment.
Turner's performance is easily her best and  even Nicholas Cage's performance which was criticized heavily at the time, grows on you(he is attempting to create a character who is sometimes silly and unlikeable and it sometimes throws the film into a different direction).
I was really surprised with how much this picture affected me emotionally.Kathleen Turner plays Peggy Sue Bodell, who is attending her 25-year high school reunion with her daughter Beth (Helen Hunt).
Peggy Sue married right out of high school but now she and her husband, Charlie (Nicolas Cage) have separated.
Yes it would be awesome to return to a time where you could amass money and power, or change history for the better, but there is also something uniquely appealing about just being able to interact with the people from your own past and get a new perspective on what the world was like back then.One of my favorite moments in the film is when Peggy is talking to her then-boyfriend Charlie (Nicholas Cage).
Francis Ford Coppola's "Peggy Sue Got Married" is a sweet and tender fantasy film that explores all these thrilling possibilities.
And although it is probably inspired by the high school/ nostalgia/ coming to age wave characterized by the success of "Back to the Future" and Howard Hughes' teenage films of the 80's, the film borrows also some elements to a very defining movie of Francis Ford Coppola's generation, "American Graffiti".
No wonder, both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel made it in their Top 10 lists, they loved "American Graffitti", they loved "It's a Wonderful Life", how can't they love a film that borrows crucial plot elements to both, and still remain original.And Kathleen Turner is the Capraesque heroine; she plays Peggy Sue with a wonderful mix of childish enthusiasm and adult poignancy.
Peggy Sue is a woman in her 40's, with two grown-up kids, divorcing from her high school love Charlie (Nicolas Cage).
The irony of the movie is when Peggy Sue decided after the going back into her past that she should not have ever married her high school sweetheart (Cage).
My favourite part of the movie is where Katheleen Turner's character "Peggy Sue", who travel back into her past gives to Cage's character the lyrics to acclaimed song "She Love You" by the Beatles whereby he chooses to change the "Yeahs" to "Oohs" is too hilarious.
Kathleen Turner is very believable as the 30-something who goes back in time during a near-death experience and sees the cause and effect of what her actions would be in the future!I know someone complained about the voice Nicolas Cage used in the film-but it works!
"Peggy Sue Got Married" is one of the best examples in Francis Ford Coppola's achievement but if you look closer and examinate the story of the film you're gonna understand why he decided to make it almost if it was a retrospective look to his life and how things worked for him in terms of personal growth facing an incredible success in the 1970's and some failures in the 1980's.
In 1985, during a school reunion Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner, excellent) collapses in front of all her friends and schoolmates after being selected as queen of the prom and strangely travels in time back to the school days in the 1960's.
Resembling Marty McFly from "Back to the Future" series, Peggy changes some of her attitudes towards her best friends; her boyfriend Charlie (always remembering that someday he's gonna cheat on her); her parents (trying to enjoy more time with them); the future richer guy Richard (Barry Miller) who was a nerdy and underestimated guy (she approaches him telling the truth about her time travel and all the scientific things about to come in the future); and also she's gonna make some significant changes in her destiny, and one of these things is to know better Michael Fitzsimmons (Kevin J.O'Connor) a mysterious student she had a little crush but always were afraid to get close to him.But she's still trying to get some possible answers about her relationship with Charlie in this new past, torturing herself every time she stays with him, remembering all his love for her and then how things became so unbearable to her.
It gives Kathleen Turner a starring vehicle, playing a woman who travels back in time and gets to redo her adolescence knowing all of the things that life as an adult has taught her, and Turner, the trooper that she is, does what she can with it, but this movie couldn't be saved by anyone.It doesn't even have any style to it, and, given its director, one would expect that even if it had nothing else, it would have that.Grade: C-.
I could not possibly recommend Peggy Sue Got Married.A woman on the verge of divorce magically travels back in time to her high school years.
This film was a charming time-travel look at how one may revel in the past, rebuke the past, and yet maybe not change the past!I loved Turner in this movie, as I do with most of her work.
Now Peggy Sue is able to recognize the turning points in her life and, this time, she has the opportunity to make different choices.The film's one minus is Nicolas Cage's overacting.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Peggy Sue Got Married is one of those movies I saw in theaters as a teenager, and though it's a movie about time travel, it really is so much more than that.
It's a movie that beautifully directed, scripted, acted, just everything about this movie is exceptional.A movie with such a great cast: Kathleen Turner (Romancing the Stone, Who Framed Roger Rabbit) as Peggy Sue Bodell, Nicolas Cage as her estranged ex-husband Charlie, Catherine Hicks, Joan Allen, Jim Carrey, and Helen Hunt.The What could've been story about Peggy Sue, who always wondered what went wrong, and what could have been, when she finds herself back in the 1950s at her high school reunion.
Francis Ford Coppola and his cameramen have selected a number of interesting angles from which to shoot the film, the music soundtrack is great, and there quite a few good performances delivered by the cast, with the best bits coming from Barry Miller and Kevin J.
The script includes the usual comic anachronisms of all time-travel plots, and ignores the familiar paradoxes (why doesn't Peggy Sue remember as an adult at the beginning of the film the second adolescence she is soon to experience?).
A confusing climax further stretches credibility way beyond the breaking point, but even with these few, nagging drawbacks and dubious central casting (Kathleen Turner looks too old for a teenager; husband Nicholas Cage is too young to be convincingly middle-aged) the film still marked a welcome return to Earth for director Francis Ford Coppola..
I saw this recently because I saw the review Siskel and Ebert gave of the film on youtube and since those guys were always pretty much on the spot I decide to watch it, and I was pleasantly surprised.The movie revolves around Peggy Sue Bodell, a beautiful woman on the verge of divorcing from her high school sweetheart Charlie Bodell played wonderfully by Nicolas Cage, who after fainting at her high school reunion finds herself back in time to the year 1960 when she was still a senior in school.The movie works so well because Kathleen Turner is such a fantastic actress and she really channels the character of Peggy Sue. This is unlike any character she'd played before.
But it's not just his voice, it's the heart he gives to his character that makes us see why the beautiful and popular Peggy Sue falls for him.The film also features great performances by Catherine Hicks and Joan Allen who play Peggy's loyal friends, Carol and Maddy.
There are more obvious choices for viewing Francis Ford Coppola as a director, but this little gem is worth viewing a Kathleen Turner's best movie, in my humble opinion.For me, it is probably the ultimate fantasy (except for being the one who makes Halle Berry a happy woman).
Peggy Sue (Turner) is living a crappy life and facing divorce from Charlie (Nicolas Cage), who was her high school sweetheart.
Peggy Sue Got Married follows the line of 1985's massively successful Back to the Future, with its protagonist travelling back in time a few decades to a world of rock 'n' rollers and high school dances.
And 2) The time traveler does not make changes in the past without expecting the future that he or she came from to be different as a result.But of course in this movie Peggy Sue does both--often.
This movie begins with a woman named "Peggy Sue" (Kathleen Turner) nervously preparing to attend her 25th high school reunion.
RELEASED IN 1986 and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, "Peggy Sue Got Married" chronicles events when the title character (Kathleen Turner) faints at her 25th high school reunion and mysteriously finds herself back in school just before graduation, 25 years earlier!
But an accident as Kathleen Turner is accepting her reunion queen crown knocks her unconscious and she's transported back to her high school days with all the folks she's enjoying happy and unhappy memories.Coming right down to it Peggy Sue Got Married is a combination of The Wizard Of Oz and It's A Wonderful Life.
All three films have the same moral, that there's no place like home.Kathleen Turner got her career role and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in Peggy Sue Got Married.
The transformative stage in which we are discovering who we are and who we want to become is purely illustrated in this Coppola film.Dreading going to her 25th reunion occurring in the midst of her separation from her high school sweetheart due to infidelity, Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) dons a dress reminiscent of the type of dress she would have worn all those years ago.
Looking back, I realize there are so many things I would like to have done differently, I wonder if it would have changed anything, and Peggy Sue gets to do that.
Yet it has never been so poignant, so refreshing than it is in Peggy Sue Got Married, a classic high school movie from the great American director Francis Ford Coppola.What Coppola does here is put a spin on the classic Frank Capra-type story of using nostalgia and the past to bring deep emotions and feelings to the surface.
Another great element Coppola must have added was to have Kathleen Turner play Peggy Sue as an adult even when she is a teenager.
Peggy Sue Bodell, 43, goes to her 25-year high school reunion.He goes there with her daughter Beth for she's divorcing her high school sweetheart Charlie.At the reunion she faints and wakes up in 1960 as a 17-year old youngster.She has to wake up for school again where she meets all her old friends young and Charlie is her singing boyfriend.She wants her life to be a little bit different but keeps making the same mistakes.Francis Ford Coppola's Peggy Sue Got Married is a fascinating film from 1986.It's a slightly different time travel themed movie than, say Back to the Future with Michael J.
Fox, which was made a year earlier.In this one we can't be sure whether the protagonist has actually travelled back in time or is she only dreaming.The role of Peggy Sue is played by Kathleen Turner who does a steady job.Helen Hunt is her daughter.Her best friends Carol and Maddy are played by Catherine Hicks and Joan Allen.The parents Jack and Evelyn are played by Don Murray and Barbara Harris.The legendary Maureen O'Sullivan is her grandmother and John Ames Grandpa.Nicholas Cage, the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, plays Charlie Bodell.We also see his daughter Sofia Coppola, who later became a famous director, playing Nancy Kelcher, Peggy Sue's sister.The bullied kid Charlie Norvik is portrayed by Barry Miller.Jim Carrey is in his early role playing Walter Getz, the class clown (surprise, surprise).Kevin J.
Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) is a middle age woman getting divorced from her husband Charlie Bodell (Nicolas Cage) who has a young girlfriend.
The scene between her and Turner are the highlight of the film for me.A good idea with some good performances + a lousy Nicholas Cage = a movie that should have/could have been much better.5 out of 10.
"Peggy Sue Got Married" is a quirky time travel movie that is of course cute.
She wishes she could "go back and do things differently", and when she wins the title of class queen, she faints, and wakes up in 1960.She soon realizes she actually does have the chance to make some changes in her life, and starts out trying to break up with her boyfriend whom she will marry in the future, Charlie Bodell, played by Nicolas Cage.
With this knowledge, she is given a second chance to guide her life in another direction.Comments: Now, twenty years after its release, its kind of like watching a reunion of sorts with stars like Kathleen Turner, Nicholas Cage, Jim Carrey, Joan Allen, Helen Hunt and Sofia Coppola in early roles.