There are certain type of movies you look back on and think that those days are gone. This movie is one of them. An incredibly sweet story, with no logic and...quite frankly...a very dark message. I see what director Barry Sonnenfeld was doing. He's balancing the line between slapstick and fairy tale. Not much different than what Billy Wilder did, except...I know now why those films only exist within their time.
Fox plays a concierge who has bigger dreams beyond the "bellhop" mentality. He gets in business with a man, who (and I'm not ruining it, since it's in the trailer) whose affair with a younger woman is now Fox's duty. Unfortunately for him, he has a flirtatious history with her. You see where the script borrows from "The Apartment." He's crestfallen that his feelings towards her may or may not trump his dreams. I can see Fox channeling his inner Jack Lemmon, but something is greatly amiss. I think, it's because there's so much fat in the story that you are just always waiting for something interesting to happen. Take for example, the candy shop lady who is pestering him about his love life. The inexplicable banter between a Chinese food delivery boy and himself (perhaps to illustrate his loneliness).
Then you have the obligatory Barry Sonnenfeld wide angle, collective shot. It's very uneven where he places these moments. Works fantastic in "Men In Black" somehow falls short here. The very lovely Gabrielle Anwar seems SO uncomfortable playing the other woman. She has the look, just not the depth. Something missing, but I can't put my finger on it. Somehow, the Shirley MacClaines's Fran Kubliak sweetness was suppose to be injected here. But Anwar doesn't seem to commit. In fact, there is a vomiting scene in this movie, reminiscent of when she attempts her suicide.
I like the fairy tale quality of this movie. And the music, as usual, leaves a swell in your heart. It's not terrible. It's perfectly fine for its time.
