Stadt, Land, Kuss

"Town and Country" is a critically panned but mildly amusing flick which tells of the marital misadventures of two of middle aged couples (Hawn/Sanders, Keaton/Beatty) who split up over reasons of fidelity. The flick is top heavy with talent on the audience side of the lens with no evidence of same in screenplay and direction. Fraught with meandering repartee, comedic situation which come off like bad improv, a jerky flow, lack of cohesion, no center of gravity, etc. "T&C" isn't as awful as it is an underachiever. Okay for hard up sofa spuds.

Town And Country is brim full of snobbery. Its about rich affluent couples making fools of themselves. Are the cast actually playing themselves in real life? Who knows, but that stands as probably the most damning element of this film. How many mansions could one have bought for what it cost to make this film? How many mouths could it have fed? Town And Country easily bought its own way into the Hollywood 'name and blame' game before it even reached the screens. I laughed a couple of times, I smiled whilst watching it, but only out of amusement at how much the film was lacking. Its a flat and hollow experience. The stars of course probably did their best but the whole enterprise was just too creaky and 'weird' to substantiate their efforts. It strived for outrageousness but attained stupidity. It strived for humble pathos but stayed in the shallows. Everything it grabbed for was lost for the mundanity - this film, whilst it did mildly entertain me for 100 minutes, alas made me feel and register nothing. It was just actors picking up a pay check and a few lovable antics. Whatever approbation I surrender here was surely only out of curiosity. The same goes for any renowned bad movies I seek out, that require viewing just to see just how bad. They can't all be masterworks you know.

When Goldie Hawn and Garry Shandling's marriage crumbles because of his infidelity, their friends are shocked. How could he? How could she not suspect? Does every man cheat and he was unlucky enough to get caught? Diane Keaton's mind whirls while she proudly defends her own faithful husband, Warren Beatty, not knowing he's been far from innocent in his marital conduct.

Much like a 1960s sex comedy, this witty situational comedy has a lot of jokes but very little vulgarity. For example, there's a scene where Warren Beatty goes to the kitchen in the middle of the night for a snack. He's soon joined by his daughter's boyfriend, the cook's boyfriend, and his son. They're all in their underwear and it's clear what they were doing minutes earlier, but nothing is shown or explicitly talked about. Modern comedies actively promote show-and-tell, and it's refreshing to go back a few years and rent something cleaner.

While Warren juggles his wife and his brief distraction, Natasssja Kinski, he's also tempted by Goldie Hawn, Andie MacDowell, and Jenna Elfman. You'll also see Charlton Heston, as a silly, gun-toting protective father, Marian Seldes as a foul-mouthed grump, and Josh Hartnett as Warren's son. Check this one out if you prefer your movies on the tame side.

I remembered seeing the advertisement for this movie at my local theater when it came out. But I was unaware of the nightmare it was to film it & release it; all I did know was that it was in & out of the theater faster than COOL AS ICE. I had no idea this movie even existed until I read James Robert Parish's book FIASCO, which has a chapter on the making of TOWN & COUNTRY...and which, rest assured, is more funny & believable than what shows up on the screen.

After searching relatively high & low to find this movie (it was released on DVD, but logically, stores do not exactly keep a copy on hand), I watched it knowing about its history & that chances are, I would likely want to throw things at the screen. I am glad to say I made it through the first viewing alive, but will start by saying that no, this movie is not a winner in the slightest. Yet is it an all-around creative bomb? Not so fast.

Starting to film without a complete script was the oldest mistake in the book & they made it. Yet while it may have been a patchwork effort without much rhyme or reason, some lines were funny & rather inspired (most of them coming from Garry Shandling, who almost walks away with the movie, such as it is). Maybe having mature, veteran actors mouth some of the more scatological dialogue (as if this was supposed to be a senior's version of American PIE) was not wise, but that is often funny to watch in itself. Diane Keaton's line near the end, "Is there any women in this room you haven't slept with?", could easily be what audiences have been wondering for years.

The only thing the script missed was continuity & structure, and all that showed on the screen, resulting in a film that looked & acted choppy, with many characters played by big names being reduced to glorified cameos, making you wonder if there is a lot left on the cutting room floor (but we cannot blame the editor for all that, seeing as how they did not have much to work with).

The producers should have been well aware that working with Warren Beatty, a famously noncommittal perfectionist, was not going to be clear sailing. Part of (if not all) the script problems can be laid at his door, since he kept insisting on changes to the dialogue, taking up time & (most obviously) money. And of course, Warren was in his early 60s when he made this movie, playing the same old Casanova he always did. Audiences, most especially the young people who make up a large part of who goes to the movies, are not going to buy that anymore, or are unwilling to try. The studio should have saw this in the beginning & realized the chances of a box office success were slim to none, and thus rein in the budget before it went haywire.

After reading Parish's book & seeing just how things went bad with TOWN & COUNTRY, I rather think a movie about the making of a movie like TOWN & COUNTRY would have been better (and with all the same actors). What went on behind the scenes was funny & screwball in itself, and most of all, it was not even scripted at all. There was potential for a movie like TOWN & COUNTRY, but if a script had been agreed on before the cameras started rolling, then the financial fallout would not have been so large. As it remains now, it is one of the biggest box-office duds in Hollywood history, and the chances of it ever turning a profit are almost nonexistent (just think about inflation).

Final thoughts: For what it was worth, the actors gave it their best shot with this movie, never once placing tongue firmly in cheek with their parts (though, by all accounts, that would have improved things). I am not sure if anyone of them knew they were making something special.

A good portion of the script was actually funny, but whenever it tried to get serious & make some kind of statement about infidelity & morality, it went downhill from there. Even the much-bandied-about ending is so artificial & predictable, you can see it coming from a mile away. More of a cop-out & a feeling of "Let's just finish this thing already!"

Most of the people involved in making this movie have survived professionally, but only time will tell how Warren Beatty fares (that is, if he makes another movie again). Hopefully, the TOWN & COUNTRY incident awoke him to the fact he needs to finally revise (or abandon altogether) his stock character if he ever wants to work regularly & be taken seriously again.

You have to wonder what combination of roofies and blackmail

New Line's former kingpin Michael DeLuca used to lure Warren

Beatty into this grotesque travesty of a Philip Barry comedy. TOWN

& COUNTRY is one of those rare movies that preoccupy you for

their entire running time with questions bearing in no way on the

story onscreen. Questions like: How did this get greenlit? Why

would someone send a comedy into production with no script?

Why would someone let a comedy finish production with no script?

Did these very gifted people (there are good, hard-working, clean

and industrious performances from Beatty, Diane Keaton, Goldie

Hawn, Jenna Elfman and Nastassja Kinski) think this was funny

when they read it? When they were shooting it? Did the crew just

kind of stand there in stony silence?

Considering the combined ages of the cast, and the movie's

splashy failure in an era where teen mediocrities rule the earth,

and the movie's damage to the career of its director, Peter

Chelsom, a talented man who's not to blame, the whole thing

provokes, not bitchy snickers, but a sigh of profound sadness.