Heads

I loved this film and don't understand why it's unavailable to purchase. It's a fast-paced comedy mystery romance. Good fun with a happy ending.

Guy Franklin (John Cryer) is a socially inept proof-reader for a small-town newspaper who dreams of greater things. When a serial decapitator hits town, editor Ab Abbott (Ed Asner) gives Guy his big break as a reporter.

A largely unknown and unseen gem of quirky dark humor.

'Heads' is the story of excessively nerdy, uptight journalist, Guy Franklin (Jon Cryer) who is recently hired to the reporter staff of the small newspaper company where he works. His nose-for-news boss Abner (Ed Asner), radiant and always assessing a story from its selling point, gives Guy his first real job: investigating the series of decapitations around their small, rural town. Only, what Guy finds out is that, it's not just murder, but involves a whole lot more dirty business.

Obviously it is a black comedy. One that starts slow, and carries on the shoulders of Ed Asner's wild-eyed character, initially (he only later in the film becomes less interesting as the mood of his character shifts towards the latter half of the film). Guy Franklin, at times too annoying for such timidity he exhibits, is actually, initially a boring character. The movie actually picks up the pace and becomes much funnier once Jennifer Tilly, as Abner's promiscuous daughter, enters the picture and latches on to her polar opposite: Guy, and turns him away from his routines of safety and pre-planning. The characters in these films are like caricatures of typical figures from 1950s cinema fiction, much like those in 'The Hudsucker Proxy,' released the following year.

While the film does tend to become a bit too long in its resolution, and despite its other flaws, it may be a film that dark comedy cult fans may enjoy.

The plot of "Heads" should identify that the movie is a black comedy. It's OK, not great. It was the first movie in which I ever saw Jon Cryer, Jennifer Tilly and Ed Asner, but I didn't learn their names until years later. I had previously seen Roddy McDowall in "Planet of the Apes", but he was another actor whose name I learned years later. I'm always surprised to read about movies many years after I saw them and find out which people they starred.

It's not any kind of masterpiece. Just an OK movie to rent if there's nothing else to watch.

And remember: bookmobile is one word.

PS: When "Heads" got released on video, the tagline was "The comedy that proves that having one head is better than none."