My Blue Heaven (1990)

Starring: Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, Joan Cusack, and Daniel Stern
Grade: B

My Blue Heaven is a pretty harmless comedy with quite a few laughs. However, I was expecting this to be much funnier considering our two leads.

Summary

Vinnie Antonelli (Martin) is a former mobster. He and his wife Linda (Deborah Rush) are forced into the Witness Protection Program because Vinnie is testifying in a big trial. FBI Agent Barney Coopersmith (Moranis) drives them to their new neighborhood in some small town named Fryburg in California, where the two will be living under the fake names of Todd and Terry Wilkinson. As soon as Barney leaves however, Linda is already planning on going back to New York. Though Vinnie is annoyed, he seems fine with it. They actually both agree that Vinnie will find a new woman soon once she leaves him. Barney goes back to his office in San Diego and talks with his superior (Ed Lauter) about another job because he thinks this one will go smoothly, but he adamantly insists on Barney seeing the Vinnie case through. Barney goes back to his desk and talks with his friend and co-worker Kirby (Bill Irwin). They both discuss how badly they want to do undercover work again. On the drive home, Barney hears on his radio that the San Diego Padres lost because of their pitcher Wally Bunting (Gordon Currie). Once he gets home, he finds Wally there with his wife (Colleen Camp), a sports psychologist. She meets with Wally all the time, so Barney is friendly with him, but he doesn’t realize that things have escalated to the point where Barney’s wife is cheating on him with Wally. Barney’s wife breaks the news to him and leaves with Wally to Wichita, as he’s going back to the minors.

Other reasons for her leaving are her being tired of Barney’s mundane and predictable approach to life.

At the same time, Vinnie is trying to adjust to his new life, but he can’t seem to shake his criminal habits.

After changing the price of all the meat at the grocery store so he could get a major discount, he gets arrested for stealing a car from a reverend while having stolen liquor in it. He comes up with some phony explanation to Assistant District Attorney Hannah Stubbs (Cusack) as to why this happened and how he’s innocent in the matter, but she isn’t buying it. It doesn’t matter though because Barney shows up and takes him out of custody because he’s still a witness and under federal jurisdiction. Hannah gets majorly pissed off but truthfully, she can’t do a thing about it. However, she does seem to be attracted to Barney.

Later, we see Hannah and her everyday life. She’s letting her two boys stay with their father Will (Stern) for Thanksgiving weekend. She says goodbye to them, promising to watch after her one son’s pet turtle. She still has a very contentious relationship with her former husband though. Following a minor argument with him when the boys leave that day, she stews at night. She drinks a little bit and washes the dishes angrily, accidentally including the dish that had her son’s pet turtle on it, sending the small animal down the garbage disposal. Sometime later, Kirby gets Barney to accompany him on an undercover job that he’s doing without approval because some guy is looking to buy stolen credit cards. Kirby meets up with the guy in a parking lot of a grocery store. Unfortunately, the man that’s trying to buy them is Vinnie. After realizing this whole thing was a bust, Barney sends Kirby home, just as Vinnie finds Hannah in the parking lot and greets her. She’s still annoyed by Vinnie, but their conversation continues as he follows her into a pet shop. Once she buys a turtle to replace the one she killed, she leaves. Following her exit, Vinnie realizes he recognizes the pet store owner and vice versa. It’s fellow mobster Johnny Bird (William Hickey). He’s also in town for being an informant and after a nice conversation where Bird implies that there are many more informants in town, Vinnie meets Barney outside.

They go to a bar where Barney explains to him how he can’t get into more trouble in town because it will only hurt their case once he testifies back in New York. Vinnie agrees to not mess around, though we know he’s going to fuck that up as soon as possible. After this, they both talk about how their wives left them last month. Vinnie suggests Barney go after Hannah, but he’s not too focused on that at the moment. Right now, it’s all about getting Vinnie to lay low until it’s time to testify, but Vinnie is making Barney’s job increasingly harder.

My Thoughts:

The entire decade of the 1980s for Steve Martin consisted of him starring in a lot of good comedies with highly creative plots to push his comedic genius and subsequent legend further. Despite coming out in 1990, My Blue Heaven fits right in with that decade, teaming him with fellow comedy star Rick Moranis for the third and last time of their careers. Between this movie, Little Shop of Horrors, and Parenthood, it’s hard to say where their chemistry shined the brightest, but it’s definitely glowing here.

Moranis, playing the role of a normal FBI agent that can be tough when he needs to be, is a nice change of pace for the Canadian comic. We know him mostly for playing nerdy or weird characters who are the opposite of leading men. However, seeing Moranis play the role of the just-doing-his-job Barney was a welcomed change of pace, as was Steve Martin playing the role of goofy mafioso Vinnie. They could’ve easily made Martin play the role of Barney and team him with a high-profile action star, which was the original plan (Look at the “Fun Fact” section at the bottom of this review), but they decided to go against type while upping the ante in terms of comedy. Might I say, this was a great choice for a film like this, and it gave Martin a chance to run wild over the picture. This was a fun performance for Steve Martin and though he doesn’t necessarily make you believe he’s a different person and not Steve Martin, he gets enough laughs to make the film work. Besides anyone higher up in law enforcement, everyone is easily charmed by the Sicilian screwball that is Vinnie. Yes, he’s obviously a liar and a troublemaker that doesn’t hide it, but it makes sense. He’s still really cool, funny (because Martin is the man), and he carries himself like a member of the mafia would, tipping anyone and everyone. Watching him try to tell his half-hearted lies and his subsequent explanations when being caught in another one is very funny to watch.

You can’t help but like the guy, mostly because of how little he tries.

This is a movie that never takes itself too seriously. The idea seemed to be “Let’s make this a borderline family comedy but have some adult themes and jokes sprinkled in”. Following this mold, they do a pretty good job with it. Could it have been more? Yes, but I did enjoy it for what it was. Truthfully, and I hate to say this, there are a lot of jokes that don’t land. Some are unnecessary, some are forced in there like a packed suitcase, and some are so cheap that you wonder why they kept it in the final edit. Now, there’s still a lot of good humor throughout, I’m just saying a notable amount did not land. My Blue Heaven suffers the most because though it’s a nice little comedy, it doesn’t push any comedic boundaries and stays relatively tame. It makes me think again of the quote from Roger Ebert when talking about Three Amigos in that the idea is there, but “the madness is missing”. Maybe that’s just not what the filmmakers wanted this movie to be. Nevertheless, not pushing the film in this direction does this story, and these talents, too much of a disservice. There was a lot more fun to be had than what we got. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a lot more that could’ve happened when you watch how the story progresses. On the other hand, the stuff that did happen, arguably under-delivered.

For example, early on, it is revealed that there are numerous other former New York mafiosos-turned-informants that live in Fryburg under different names. Eventually, Vinnie meets up with all of them, and they all go out for lunch. After they tell Vinnie that the government checks dry up after the trial, and they are expected to get real jobs after this, he suggests they form their own crime syndicate in town since there is enough of them there to pull it off. After saying this in passing, everyone pauses because it’s actually a great idea. This is actually a really funny scene and a great idea on where to take the story. Though it continues as a background plot device for Vinnie to mess around with, allowing for Vinnie to continue to get into more trouble, this hilarious idea never realizes its full potential because the relatively short movie goes back to the burgeoning relationship with Barney and Hannah, along with Vinnie’s friendship with Barney. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing to focus on, but there’s no reason why the mafia stuff couldn’t have been included more with an extended running time. They’ve should’ve made the crime more outlandish and put some more action to it. In doing so, there could’ve easily been more comedic situations stemming from it that were desperately needed.

What if they had some huge sale that went wrong, prompting a violent shootout? Then, Vinnie has to run away like Ferris Bueller back to his house at the same time Barney and Hannah drive to his place to take him and his wife out for a movie? As soon as he runs in the back door, they could’ve showed up, and he would nonchalantly act like nothing is wrong. When they’re watching the news the next day, the media can make a report on it claiming that the shootout scene was reminiscent of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and Vinnie pleading ignorance. It would’ve been hysterical! You see what I’m saying? There’s so much that could’ve happened with a plot like this! Sadly, it seems that just like Barney’s life (and the reason his wife left him), this movie hit the same predictable beats you would expect in a comedy like this. Thankfully, the star power helped a lot. I was just hoping this would be a little bit more offbeat. Am I being too harsh? Look, it’s still good and all, it just won’t set the comedy world on fire or anything.

Joan Cusack plays Moranis’s love interest very well as the uptight but likable DA, while dealing with the hardships of divorce and relationships. We shouldn’t be surprised though. Cusack is very good at playing “uptight”. Us School of Rock fans know this.

There were also these captions written from the point of view of Vinnie telling the story, and it’s a nice touch. Is it necessary? Not really, but it helps some scenes stand out comedically because of the timing of everything, so I think it works. This movie also wins the Cinema Loco award for “Best Dance Sequence for a Non-Musical Film in 1990“, for the really humorous and upbeat merengue dance sequence between Martin, Moranis, and two random club girls. Honestly, I wanted to get up and start dancing too.

My Blue Heaven is an enjoyable comedy about the friendship of a former mafia member turned informant and the FBI agent assigned to protect him until the trial. Once again, Steve Martin and Rick Moranis make a great team. It’s a small-scale film that doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is. Plus, it’s relatively inoffensive, amusing, and silly. It could’ve been a lot more but for such a short running time, it’s pretty entertaining.

It’s one of those comedies you could watch with your mom, and it wouldn’t be weird (if that makes sense).

Fun Fact: The film was first pitched to Goldie Hawn, who was interested initially in the role of Hannah Stubbs. Basically, she dropped out because the role wasn’t big enough for her star stature at the time and if it happened exactly how it played out with Joan Cusack, I’m inclined to agree. However, I find it hard to believe that the role would’ve gone unchanged had she joined the cast. With her joining, her role would’ve been much bigger and much better. Nora Ephron would’ve been forced to give the role a lot more importance to the overall film and be more on par with the two leads. Also, no offense to Cusack, but a comedy starring Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, and Goldie Hawn could’ve easily made this movie one of the better movies of 1990, instead of a pretty solid one.

After Hawn dropped out, Steve Martin was to play Rick Moranis’s role with Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Vinnie. Once Schwarzenegger left the movie for Kindergarten Cop, and Danny DeVito turned it down too, we were left with what we ended up getting. All in all, not a bad consolation prize. Steve Martin also wanted John Travolta to play the role of Vinnie, though he turned it down to be in Look Who’s Talking Too, adding to the historically long list of bad decisions Travolta has made in his career. Honestly, of all the pairings that could’ve happened, I would’ve enjoyed a Martin/Travolta team-up the most. Based off what we know of Vinnie as a character in this movie, Travolta definitely could’ve pulled off the charm of the character and made it his own.