C'est la faute à Rio

Stanley Donen directed many wonderful films from 1949 through the 1960s. But his career became very scattershot after the production code fell, and his big screen career came to a lamentable end with Blame It on Rio (1984). Although he later directed a nice little TV movie for ABC in 1999

The film is billed as a comedy, but its grim. Michael Caine stars as a man in the midst of a midlife crisis who, perhaps under the spell of a trip to sultry Rio, embarks on a brief affair with the nymphet daughter (Michelle Johnson) of his best friend (Joseph Bologna). The actors look embarrassed and stricken (this extends to Valerie Harper and Demi Moore as well), the script isn't funny (no laughs in this film, only one gag that produced a tiny smirk), the photography is flat, and the end result is very dour and unappealing.

But the worst mistake of all in the film is including a luscious black-and-white clip of the wing walking "Rio by the Sea-o" production number from 1933's Flying Down to Rio. The brief scene shows the studio system at its height, with true wonder and fascination. It leaves one lamenting the film around the clip all the more.

It's a travelogue/sex-comedy with great photography of Rio, funny jokes and a pleasing early eighties feel. All the typical aspects of life in Brazil are shown like Carnival, native gods/religion, topless sunbathers, street dancers, the monolith dome with Jesus on top etc. There are a lot of funny lines that will keep you entertained and Michael Caine delivers them well. The soundtrack has a lot of bossa nova strains (composed by Ken Wannberg) and adds to the sexy, lighthearted mood.

I saw this movie when it first came out. The theater was in a small town and there was nothing else to do that night so we went to the movie thinking it would be crap. Instead, I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my seat. I've loved the movie ever since.

Everyone knows the premise---Michael Caine and Joseph Bologna take their teenage daughters, Michelle Johnson and Demi Moore to Rio for a vacation. Caine's marriage is in trouble and his wife is vacationing somewhere else. They're barely settled into the home they're renting when Johnson aggressively pursues Caine and he quickly succumbs (like any man would!). Caine is guilt-ridden but cannot resist Michelle's considerable charms. Her father finds out about the affair and goes nuts trying to find out who her lover is. He enlists Caine in his search and many hilarious scenes ensue.

The setting for this movie is just gorgeous and the women are even more beautiful. This was Michelle Johnson's first movie and it shows but she does project a sweet sincerity and her va-va-voom body more than makes up for any performance shortcomings. Zowie! Catch the scene where the fathers find their daughters topless at the beach---this was well before Demi Moore had some "enhancements" later in her life and it is painfully obvious that she's extremely embarrassed by doing the topless scene. Michelle is a trouper though, lucky for us!

The ultimate reason to see this movie though is Michael Caine. He is extremely funny in this movie and I can only imagine how much fun he had making it----a guy in his 40s getting to spend a few weeks in one of the most beautiful and exciting cities in the world and having all these love scenes with a girl half his age and getting paid to do it!!! Caine has made a lot of schlocky movies, for sure, but in an interview once he said that no matter how dumb the movie was or how cheaply it was done, he would try to give the best performance he could so even if the rest of the movie was crap, the viewer could at least appreciate that Caine did a good job. That dedication to his craft is what lifts what should've been a "C-" movie like "Rio" into a "B" "B-" movie instead and when he's in really good material, makes it unforgettable.

This is a fun light-hearted comedy, with magnificent views of Brazil and subtle comic performances. It captures that early eighties feel well. And broaches the subject of a teenage temptress more honestly than the recent version of Lolita.

I can only think that this movie was out of time. probably from a gentler age, but it still hits the mark with me, even watching it now.

You read a plot synopsis for Blame It on Rio and immediately you think that this just has to be a terrible movie. And besides being terrible it's also going to be downright uncomfortable to watch as the story centers around some wildly inappropriate behavior. They'd never make a movie like this today you think and thank goodness for that. Yes, those would probably be your thoughts before you watch this movie. But then you watch it and it's actually not that bad. Yes there is that uneasy feeling throughout due to the fact that the subject matter is more than a little icky. But the movie is entertaining. It's light-hearted fun. In fact you could even call it charming if not for the fact that there's nothing particularly charming about a middle-aged man having sex with his best friend's teenage daughter.

So our story is about this exceedingly inappropriate relationship. And the movie plays it for laughs. And it works? Ah, the 1980s. A very different world from today that's for sure. Blame It on Rio is never uproariously funny but there are enough good comic moments sprinkled throughout to keep things moving along nicely. In playing Matthew, the man who can't resist the charms of the teenage temptress, it is Michael Caine who really holds the movie together. An awkward character to play no doubt and Caine makes it work. From the moment we meet him, even before his wild fling, Matthew never seems entirely comfortable in his own skin. Preying on that awkwardness is his own personal Lolita. She goes by the name of Jennifer and is played by Michelle Johnson for whom comfort in her own skin was apparently not an issue. Yowzers! Easy to see how it would be difficult for any man to resist her feminine charms. But Matthew, you're forty-something, she's a teenager, and she's your best friend's daughter! This can't happen! But it does and...hilarity ensues? Yeah you wouldn't think this is a particularly comedic situation but that's the direction in which this movie goes and somehow it kind of works.

It's hard to fully embrace the movie as none of the main characters come off particularly well. The Matthew-Jennifer relationship is not the only inappropriate thing going on here, not by a long shot. You'd think Jennifer's father, what with his best friend sleeping with his nubile daughter, would be the sympathetic character. But, as portrayed by Joseph Bologna, he's a sleaze too. Who in this movie isn't? Well, there's Matthew's daughter Nicole. Demi Moore plays the role and it's a smaller part compared to Caine, Johnson and Bologna. But if you sympathize with anyone it's her. She has an innocence about her. All the adults in this movie have lost their innocence long ago. And her friend Jennifer can't wait to lose hers...with Nicole's father no less. Poor Nicole. She even has to suffer in comparison standing next to the voluptuous Jennifer on one of Rio's famous topless beaches. At this point in her life Demi Moore had not yet embraced the wonders of surgical enhancement and that leaves Nicole bashful, trying to cover up her modest assets with her long hair. Jennifer? She's not bashful. But somehow she's still sweet and charming. And there's still a vulnerability and touch of innocence to her even as she's taking off her clothes and seducing a middle-aged man. It's hard to figure. The story shouldn't work, the movie shouldn't work, we really shouldn't be finding any of this funny. But somehow the end result isn't that bad at all. Go into this movie with low expectations and you may well be pleasantly surprised.