The 80s must have been just great. At least the 80s in movies are. Bad hairstyles, tacky music, drugs everywhere, good Americans, bad Arabs, “bof” French supersexed cool people. Oh, wait, that’s exactly what they will say about the 2010s in 30 years time. Or maybe they will just laugh at us while they sit in their hovercars stroking their perfectly moisturized skin. You bastards from the future, how dare you judge us!
I really didn’t know anything about the film when I went to see it, just that it is by Roman Polanski and that there is some sort of luggage-mixup at an airport, that results in… something. And as the film unfolded I was fooled into thinking that this was going to be just one of those films we all know: woman gets mistaken for someone else, is kidnapped, husband has to save her and possibly the world. But there is so much more to this film than that!
First of all, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. (Which is always good.) Harrison Ford’s character (yes, it’s one of the good Harrison Ford films) is wonderfully clumsy and inept. He is not the cool hero, who goes mental until he is surrounded with corpses and holds the fair maiden in his hands, most of the things he tries to do, go wrong, very wrong indeed. He is chased from one embarrassing situation to the next, but that’s exactly why we feel for him. The problems he is faced with are problems we all know (maybe apart from the one, where your spouse is kidnapped by someone and you have to prevent world-wide war), they are not action-hero problems. He has to deal with bureaucracy, people hanging up phones because they don’t take him seriously and he has to go to clubs he is just not cool, hip or whatever enough for. (That last one may be a very personal problem of mine)
As the story progresses, the film gets more and more funny. There is situational comedy, satire, slapstick, some quite surreal moments. It’s these humorous elements that make this film so entertaining, without them it would just be another boring kidnap-and-rescue film. It also contains the best and funniest dance scene I’ve seen in a long time. I wanted to describe it, but that’s kind of impossible, so just watch it here NOW! Or watch the whole film, I really don’t want to pressure you either way.
barbarisk 