The Out-of-Towners (Remake) (1999)

Starring: Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, John Cleese, and Mark McKinney, with a cameo from Rudy Giuliani
Grade: C

I like how our main characters admit they would never want to be 17 again. They just wouldn’t mind feeling like it. For years, I’ve been trying to figure out how to put those exact sentiments into words, and they did it so eloquently in their intimate conversation midway through the movie. It may not mean a lot to most, but for some reason, this exchanged resonated with me.

Summary

Henry (Martin) and Nancy Clark (Hawn) have been married for 27 years, but they’re at a bit of a crossroads. To open the film, Nancy sets up the bedroom to entice Henry, but he doesn’t notice any of the hints and goes straight to bed. The next morning, they see their son (Oliver Hudson) off to Europe at the airport. They both downplay how sad they are, but you know they aren’t taking it well. On the drive home, Henry brings up how they’ll have more time for each other, but this only triggers Nancy to start crying. Regardless, Henry has a big job interview in New York, so they may be leaving their small Ohio town that they have lived in for their entire lives. Henry hated New York before, but he insists he doesn’t anymore. The one positive Nancy sees out of this move to New York is that they’ll be able to see their daughter Susan (Jessica Cauffiel), but Susan hasn’t talked to Henry in a while because the last time they spoke, she told him she was leaving medical school. Freaking out, Henry threatened to sue her for lost tuition. They get home to their empty house, and it starts to hit them. Later, Henry has a private phone call with a friend where it’s revealed he was fired from his current job. However, Nancy doesn’t know. At dinner, Nancy admits she doesn’t know what to do with the rest of her life, and Henry does a shitty job of consoling her. The next morning, Henry leaves to go to New York. To his shock, Nancy ends up deciding to come with and shows up on the plane at the last second.

After some initial awkwardness because of the two sitting in separate areas and Nancy still wanting to hold a conversation, they eventually sit together. Henry refuses the in-flight meal for both of them because he’s going to take Nancy to a great restaurant once they get in. Plus, he’s nervous. Nancy reassures him because he still has a job, but as we know, this isn’t true. Just then, fog covers New York, and the Captain comes on the loudspeaker to tell them they’ve been redirected to Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. Upon arriving at the airport, Henry goes to see if there are any flights taking them near New York, with Nancy going to get the bags. He’s told the only possibility is the next train leaving South Station in 20 minutes. He runs over to the carousel to collect Nancy, but she tells him their bags never came out. He frantically runs up the carousel in a panic to start yelling his claim number but is knocked on his ass by another bag coming out of it. They go to Lost and Found and get a hard time from the worker because of the minutia of detail he wants them to use to describe the bags. Nancy, who used to work in advertising with Henry, sketches up a perfect drawing of the bag for the guy and he’s impressed. Even so, they don’t have the bags.

Looking for a taxi outside, Henry admits he should have eaten something, but Nancy assures him there will be food on the train. They kiss once they enter a taxi though, and Henry smells peanut butter on her breath. She admits she got something from the vending machine when she was waiting for the bags, and this annoys him because of how hungry he currently is. Following this, they head to South Station but miss the train. Nancy goes to the bathroom, and Henry tries to get something from the vending machine, but it gets stuck. While he tries to fight the machine, he hears a final boarding call for the train to New York. There’s still time! He goes to the women’s bathroom to get Nancy and grabs a female worker to get her out. However, Nancy actually got lost and didn’t enter yet, prompting the worker to pull out some old lady instead, as Henry grabs Nancy to run to the train. Sadly, they enter an empty train and a worker who is cleaning the car tells him the train they want is the one next to them. This one departs as soon they look out the window. They decide to rent a car. Unfortunately, the only one available is the luxury sedan, and they’re forced to take it. During the drive, they can’t figure out how to turn down the heater, and they stew in the car together. They also both admit they’re in separate personal ruts, though Henry insists their relationship is not in a rut. Following some directional issues to the point where Nancy drives instead, they finally decide to use the navigation system since they both screwed up while looking at the map. Eventually, they hit a pothole, and the navigation system starts speaking French instead of English. They both start panicking and hit the machine. As it turns into Japanese, they get distracted amidst this chaos and crash into a fish market.

They take the car in for repairs and the bill is $2,200. Leaving the car in the shop, they walk out into the city. Soon after, they run into an actor who asks for $5 for a taxi because he lost his money and credit cards in a cab and needs to make it to the theatre. Henry doesn’t believe it at first but once Nancy mistakes him for Andrew Lloyd Webber, they both fangirl over him and offer him money. Sadly, it was all a ruse, and the guy is actually a mugger. He robs them at gunpoint and escapes. Thankfully, Henry kept his credit card in his sock, so they have something. They get to the Grand Mark Hotel and talk with manager Mr. Mersault (Cleese) to check in. During their conversation, they get a message from the airport that their luggage has been located, and it will be delivered to the hotel later in the evening. Mersault interrupts to say they’ve had an issue with his credit card, so Henry has to call the bank. Once the bank tells him of all these outlandish purchases used with one of his credit cards, he realizes his daughter Susan is the culprit. He’s about to flip out, but it only gets worse when Nancy admits she gave Susan one of their credit cards when she dropped out of medical school to become an actress and needed a place to live. As they argue, Mersault intervenes and has them both kicked out since they have no money. Nancy suggests they go see Susan for help, but Henry has no interest. Nevertheless, he decides to walk her to the apartment. He stays outside while she goes in.

At the same time Henry gets caught for trying to steal some street fruit, Nancy gets into an argument with the other tenants who want her arrested for trying to steal their newspaper, even though she was just trying to rip off a sliver to write a note and leave it under her door since Susan wasn’t answering. Eventually, a rottweiler is let loose from another tenant, and she’s chased out. Henry sees the commotion and helps her escape to a church. There, they see free food being displayed, so they enter, only to find out that they have to sit through a meeting first to get through it.

What is this meeting you ask? Well, it’s a support group for sex addicts, with a couple of people talking openly about problems with masturbation and promiscuity.

Henry and Nancy try to leave, but when Nancy tries to reveal they shouldn’t be a part of this because of their lack of sex, this fits right in with the group discussion. This results in them discussing the sex in their marriage for everyone to hear, and Henry is not happy, especially when Nancy admits they haven’t had sex in two months. He talks about how tense he’s been, prompting everyone to ask why. Finally, he admits he got fired and how this interview is so much more important than he led on. Nancy can’t believe he wouldn’t tell her this beforehand and leaves, with Henry following. They argue outside about Henry’s job, Nancy lying about Susan, and Henry’s lack of confidence regarding the interview. As things calm down between them, Nancy starts to get inspired, saying this situation is a test on their lives and how they need to answer the call to find out how they will approach the rest of their lives. Henry isn’t necessarily on board, but he gets a little bit of optimism once Nancy realizes they still are getting their bags at the hotel they got kicked out of. In the bags, she has $600 worth of traveler’s checks. Things are looking up for the couple!

However, New York is just getting started with these two.

My Thoughts:

Even though I said it a million times in the original film’s review, this remake of The Out-of-Towners was head and shoulders above its predecessor. Though retaining the disaster elements of travelling and trying to navigate through New York as its premise, we get a less cynical take in this retelling of the 1970 comedy. On top of that, there’s more heart to it.

The always likable Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn take over the long-time married couple roles, but there’s so much more to them in what’s going on in their lives. Henry, unbeknownst to Nancy, has just lost his job but has secured an interview in New York. All his focus needs to be directed towards this interview because he’s already middle-aged and looks even older. In fact, he wasn’t retained because of this, with his ex-boss pointing out that they need new, cutting-edge ideas, something Henry was never good at. Along with this, he’s too complacent and a little boring, something Nancy admits is irking her later in the movie. Now, he’s starting over in the corporate world, and this job can make-or-break the future of his mental health and marriage. His son moving out doesn’t help matters much, but he has a much better handle on it than his wife Nancy. She’s currently at a personal crossroads in her life because everything she was doing was devoted to her children. She used to work in advertising with Henry but decided to stay at home at some point in their lives. With both children being officially moved out, she has lost her purpose. Soon after her and Henry have some alone time, she blurts out that she doesn’t know what to do “with the rest of her life”. Though this may be a little dramatic, you can’t help but empathize with her honesty. If Nancy hasn’t worked in years and her primary focus is gone (her two kids), what is there to do now? Her life is now wide open. She can either wither away into nothingness or embrace the freedom she has to create fun opportunities for herself and to find meaning again.

This sets us up very well for the narrative taking place, giving us a fresher and more upbeat look at this otherwise chaotic mess the two will eventually find themselves in.

The positive of it is that it still feels like a necessary moment in their lives to improve them. This is something the original film didn’t understand. There, the couple went through it all and succeeded but decided they couldn’t handle the big city life. It felt like they gave up and let New York beat them. This exact sentiment is what fuels Henry and Nancy to not give up, and they become stronger because of it. This is just a flat-out better conclusion. Even though the hijacking of the plane in the original was a much better ending than the cutesy one we got here (though it fit the story the remake was telling), the overall message is much better in this remake.

Though she may get in the way at times, Nancy is the excitement in the mundane life Henry lives. This is why their marriage has worked for so long. However, now that their kids are gone and they only have each other, the problems they have with their staunchly different personalities start to strengthen, reaching a boiling point because of the adversity they face. Do they face it or run from it? In this version of The Out-of-Towners, the comedy is about much more than just dealing with unfortunate circumstances while travelling. Amidst the chaos, there’s some actual depth and story to watch unfold.

For the record, the original could have gotten away with its chaotic focus if it was funnier, but it wasn’t.

Regardless, this film touches on two very important themes such as what it means to age and how to approach it in life and having purpose.

There’s a point where Nancy changes the direction of the movie because she sees and acknowledges their issues and wants to shake things up with some excitement, realizing that the monotonous lives they live is what’s causing their rut. She’s adamant they need to embrace life while Henry is on the verge of giving up and calling it, admitting he’s fine with just catching up on some reading. As we see, this is the psyche of someone in a personal rut, stuck in the mindset of being done with it all. With Nancy, she’s in a place where she sees this opportunity to start anew, seeking different experiences and refusing to stay complacent. She wants to be free and has no interest in lying down just because she’s a little older, something that would be so easy, and Henry is willing to do. This gives us fun moments like Nancy flirting with Greg (McKinney) and getting the key to his hotel room just so her and Henry can use his room to order food. She even steals some stuff and is forced to blackmail Mr. Mersault in a very funny exchange over the phone. At one point, Henry asks, “Who are you?”. It’s amusing in context, but it’s also a line representing an awakening for both characters. With Henry, this experience reminds him how much he loves Nancy, how he needs to improve as a person to work harder on their marriage, and how much more important their relationship is at this stage in their lives than he realizes. In addition, Nancy is creating excitement and opportunities with the goal in mind of “embracing life”. She works her ass off in doing this for herself and her husband, and this is why it’s such crucial moment when they finally get to the interview.

She reminds him of “their” goal to embrace life but because of the pessimistic attitude of Henry after initially failing, he tells her plain and simple, “We’re too old for that”. When you pay attention to these characters and understand where they begin to where they finish, this is such a devasting response. However, it needed to be said for Henry to come to the realization of where he needs to go, and the film is better off because of it.

One particular improvement the remake excels in is the characterization of Goldie Hawn’s role as the trying-to-figure-things-out wife, Nancy. She’s exponentially better than Sandy Dennis as Gwen Kellerman. The performance is better, Hawn is actually likable and humorous, and the role is written better. Basically, Hawn’s role as Nancy is better in every category. She takes the character and actually makes it mean something. She could have easily skated by with being the bubbly wife just along for the ride, causing Martin’s Henry to have to get her out of situations. However, this is much more of a team effort compared to the original film. This is mostly due to a much more grown Goldie, whose star power would not allow her to accept such a paltry role this late in her career. Now, I’m not saying this is a perfect script or anything because it’s far from it. I’m just happy the character was improved upon from the original because Nancy actually has a brain in her head, which is something we weren’t sure about watching Gwen in the original. Here, Nancy is given an actual character arc worth following, and she has her own personal mission, along with the main goal of getting Henry to his interview. Her purpose drives the second half of the film and is essentially the only reason Henry makes it there literally and mentally. Once they both acknowledge they’re in a rut, the rekindling of their marriage becomes just as important as Henry’s job prospects, and they both win us over in doing so.

In yet another way the remake does things better, we see how important Nancy is to Henry’s life, rather than the wife just being this annoying bystander than hinders the final product like in the original. Here, they’re equals, and though Henry’s story is the backbone to the plot, Nancy’s is the heart. She is Henry’s support system, and it’s a sweet message to send because it shows the powers of a healthy marriage when communication and honesty is at an all-time high.

Let’s acknowledge what’s wrong with each other and our relationship, and let’s talk about what we want to do in life. Now, let’s figure out a way to get us there instead of walking around it until we both die. Wild concept, right?

John Cleese steals the show. The man has a funny quip or reaction in virtually every scene he’s in. Though we’d much rather have him starring alongside Steve Martin in one of those absurdist comedies from the 80s instead of the relatively toned-done film we have here, it’s awesome to see two comedic legends share the screen together on the opposing sides they do. Playing the pompous hotel manager who treats his workers and any non-customer like shit but flips a switch and plays the most courteous and fake nice person imaginable to anyone staying at the hotel was very funny, as Cleese delivers all the best lines of the film. When you add in his penchant for sneaking into his guests’ room to dance around in women’s clothing, you can’t help but laugh. It’s classic John Cleese. The simple fact that we get a third star worth mentioning puts it over the original.

If I were to give the Arthur Hiller’s The Out-of-Towners one thing, Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis actually looked exhausted and stressed, much more than Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn did here. In the original, we felt as fatigued as the characters do. I didn’t get that out of this remake, so it didn’t feel as satisfying when it was all over. Lemmon was acting circles around all four stars as well and looked like he went through a war once the movie was over. Nobody did that here. Though Martin and Hawn’s gigantic misadventure was stressful in its own right, it didn’t come across as the draining disaster that the original film made us believe in. Even so, this remake was funnier, so things even out.

The remake of The Out-of-Towners succeeds whether the original doesn’t. It gives the characters much more depth and importance, the characters are actually likable, it’s funnier, it’s breezy, it’s much more cheerful, and it has a better cast. By itself however, it’s a pretty standard comedy not worth writing home about. It’s mildly amusing and passable entertainment, but we’ve seen all three of our principal stars in much better comedic endeavors.