The Fabulous Baker Boys
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Movie Reviews of The Fabulous Baker Boys
Movie Review: Fabulous Baker Boys and a really Hot Michelle Pfeiffer
Summary: 5 Stars
If you've ever played in a band with your brother - or are interested in Michelle seducing a grand piano - or see a funky side of Seattle - see this movie...Movie Review: The Fabulous Baker Boys
Summary: 5 Stars
I like the movie and so does my husband. Very entertaining and the cast is excellent.Movie Review: The Fabulous Bridges Boys Still a Crowd-Pleaser
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Fabulous Baker Boys," (1989) is a strong, steamy American romantic comedy/drama filmed at the end of a decade that, for whatever the reasons saw Hollywood make many strong romantic dramas. It's certainly a showbiz drama, set in the Left Coast City of Seattle. Sibling pianists Frank (Beau Bridges) and Jack Baker(Jeff Bridges), played by the actual sibling Bridges boys, are professional musicians who've never needed day jobs, but they're playing dismayingly schmaltzy music, and they're sure not getting work at the city's best venues. So they decide to get a chanteuse to spice up their dual piano act. After enduring a day of hilarious, off-key auditions, highlighted by a witty romp by the uniquely-voiced Jennifer Tilly(Seed of Chucky) as Blanche (Monica) Moran, they choose beautiful, sexy Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer). Mind you, Susie comes with, as they used to say, a checkered past: she used to work for an escort service. At any rate, the trio become successful beyond their wildest dreams. But when a relationship develops between Susie and Jack, the brothers are forced to consider where they're headed , and how honest they've been with each other.
The fabulous Bridges boys are, of course, excellent, light-footed actors, each of which has had a long film career, Beau in (Crazy Heart); Jeff in (The Big Lebowski - 10th Anniversary Edition). The piano work is dubbed by the distinguished Dave Grusin, who also wrote the film's score, and John Hammond. Michelle Pfeiffer,(Hairspray (Full-Screen Edition)) is also, of course, an excellent actor, in addition to being a great beauty; her versatility has given her a much longer career than that enjoyed by most Hollywood beauties. She has good comic timing, can sing, and even danced, I believe, in Grease 2, though it's a long time since I've seen that film. She does her own singing here, and, with choreography by Peggy Holmes, delivers possibly her career signature scene in a scorching piano top rendition of "Making Whoopie." The young Ellie Raab (The Ref), gets fourth billing as Nina, the pain in the neck neglected kid who lives above Jack, and visits him via the fire escape when things get too tough with her mom.
Now's the time to admit to an ulterior motive in writing this review. I knew, from the Brooklyn neighborhood, the talented Ellie when she was making this picture, her younger sister Anya, and her hard-working, big-hearted, hospitable single mom, Debbie. Deb died tragically young. Ellie was only eighteen, and a freshman at Vassar College, having previously gone to Saint Anne's School for the Gifted in Brooklyn Heights. Anya was going, I believe, to the Packer Institute of Brooklyn Heights. Both these girls dropped out of sight after Deb's death. If anybody knows anything about their whereabouts, I would appreciate hearing from you.
The movie is a fairly accurate and frank depiction of musicians' lives-on-the-road that reveals what happens after the audience goes home and the musicians retire to their nice hotel rooms to soak their aching feet. Sydney Pollack executive produced. It's an inspiring, witty, understated, and romantic film, with a nuts-and-bolt, noir outlook. Although it does, perhaps move a bit slowly for modern tastes. It was written and directed by Steve Kloves, and is still a crowd-pleaser. Worth catching anyway you can.
Movie Review: Cry Me A River
Summary: 4 Stars
In what has now become my standard opening line doing this retrospective of Jeff Bridge's film work I will simply repeat here what I have said before. I have spilled much ink this year, in the wake of his Oscar victory in the role of broken down country singer-songwriter, Bad Blake, in the film Crazy Hearts , arguing that Bridges had been preparing for that role since he first broke out as the future good ol' boy, Duane Jackson, in The Last Picture Show. That thread in his work comes to something of halt here as Bridges, and brother Beau, play a brother team of lounge lizard show tune piano-players going nowhere fast in the hard scrabble work of small venue musical gigs. East Coast version, mainly New York City and its environs. Bridges' here plays a more abstracted, more world-weary and wary, catch in a place that he doesn't want to be, life has passed him by, more existential anti-heroic role.
You know, now that I think of it, what this low rent brother act could use is a female singer, a torch singer. And of course the plot line in what would otherwise be an unexceptional film brings in just such a singer in the person of Michelle Pfeiffer to spice up the act. The tensions, including the obvious sexual tensions between Jeff and Michelle drive most of the film. And at that level this becomes a better than average film. But the real reason that I liked the film is, as I have mentioned in other reviews, I am a sucker for a torch singer. From Bessie Smith to Billie Holiday to Peggy Lee in her Benny Goodman days, hell, even Rosemary Clooney when she was in the mood could (can) always chase away the blues. Now enter one fetching torch singer, one slinky, fetching torch singer, one cry me a river fetching torch singer and I am a goner. Add in a scene with said torch singer dressed in a come hither devilishly red dress singing atop old Jeff's piano on New Year's and, well, be still my heart. I could add more but under doctor's advice I have to wait until my blood pressure subsides Oh ya, before I forget Jeff (and Beau) did a good job acting here. But it's really about that silky-voiced, sultry dame, okay. Enough said.
Movie Review: Classic Lounge Act Story
Summary: 4 Stars
For anyone who ever tried to parlay any sort of musical talent into a monetarily rewarding venture, this film is for you. Whether you are the proverbial "weekend warrior" musician or a renowned and financially secure artist, you have to go through all the metaphorical "hoops" to get wherever you are. Beau, Jeff and Michelle ever so poignantly take you through those hoops in an utterly realistic, no-holds barred fashion. How many groups have you seen like this: the average-joe player who gets the gigs basically due to his business acumen; the prodigy who seems to disdain all beneath him, which to him is just about everybody; the chanteuse who pretty much wants to have it "my way or the highway"; the endless and sundry flock of wannabee auditioners who need just one chance to prove themselves? Sound familiar? Then you need to watch and absorb this one-of-a kind movie.
Beau and Jeff are so realistic in their roles that you have to wonder if the two of them, brothers in real life, actually did musical gigs together when they were younger. It seems as if sibling warfare in real life spills over in this drama. The mounting tension among the three principals is deftly crafted by the director/writer, Steve Cloves, who carefully and slowly weaves his story line to include not only musical issues but also how all this tension affects other facets of their lives. The supporting characters, whom many other reviewers have noted, are superb in their more minimal yet effective roles. No wasted motion in a simultaneously tough and tender movie. But all the above would go for much less were it not for Dave Grusin's gorgeous sound track and keyboard renderings especially as they pertain to the ever so hauntingly soulful recurring theme. All this good stuff takes me back to the days of my lounge lizard gigs, days that I'll always cherish, the good with the not so good!