Maxie

Maxie is an absolutely delightful comedy based upon the 1973 novel by Jack Finney, `Marion's Wall'. Filmed primarily in San Francisco, this 1985 movie stars Glenn Close and Mandy Patinkin with the wonderful Ruth Gordon in a supporting role. Close plays a double role as Patinkin's wife, Jan, and as Maxie, a 20's vaudeville actress, who returns to this plane to occupy Jan's body. Glenn Close is really fabulous in these roles. This is a great movie based on the fact that it is a great story, with excellent acting. Maxie doesn't rely on massive special effects or inane contemporary music. It is classic comedy that leaves you feeling good when the film is over. This is 98 minutes of excellent entertainment that I would highly recommend.

There is a gentleness to this movie, a lack of meanness, anger, angst or aggression, that automatically alienates the majority of moviegoers too obsessed with violence and noise to appreciate things like dialog, tone and mood.

Mandy Patinkin, a national treasure better known for his work on Broadway than in film, appears as a rare book librarian whose wife, Jan, (Glenn Close) becomes possessed by Maxie Malone, 1920's firebrand whose untimely death ended her movie career before it began. Close is adorable in quite different ways as both Jan and Maxie, although in the end, you really wish Maxie could get more face time.

Alas, the living couple decide their spectral third wheel must go, and even though she does win a part that proves she would have been a star, she agrees to take a powder.

Patinkin and Close create characters about whom we care and in whose lives we can take an interest. Ruth Gordon, who passed away shortly after filming, is hilarious, endearing, and a bit sad, as Trudie, Maxie's flapper friend who survived her friend to become an eccentric old woman. In fact, there is a thread of melancholy that runs through the film, but in the end, it leaves you feeling uplifted and optimistic. That in itself makes this movie a treasure.

There is a side-splitting audition scene with Maxie and Harry Hamlin in a cameo playing himself. Barnard Hughes is Maxie's boss, a Bishop who feels an exorcism is in order to banish the freewheeling Maxie. There's even an uncredited appearance by Carole Lombard in the young Maxie's silent film clip.

I don't know what it is about this movie that is so beautiful. It's hard to describe. But it may be the complete lack of the ugliness that pollutes most movies these days. Every time I watch Maxie, I come away feeling refreshed and renewed. What more could you want from a movie?

This charming film doesn't get the credit it deserves. It has a first-rate cast and tells its tale in a gentle and whimsical manner. Glenn Close plays Jan, a demure housewife possessed by the ghost of a twenties starlet flapper who died on the verge of her big break. As "Maxie" Close embodies the girl's longing to prove herself and see what might have been. Along for the ride is Mandy Patinkin as the hapless husband, Nick, who truly loves his wife, but is overwhelmed by Maxie and her zest for life. Also there, in her final picture, is Ruth Gordon, who was Maxie's dance partner in vaudeville and is now the landlady of the apartment building where Jan and Nick live. Gordon was always a scene stealer, but in this film she brings a fragility and tenderness to her role that is unlike any of her previous work. The scene were she comes face to face with Maxie for the first time in sixty years really brings a tear to your eye.

The critics excoriated the film, mostly complaining that it wasn't something other than what it was trying to be -a light and frothy bit of silliness that made you laugh and have a very pleasant hour and a half.

..why hasn't this sweet, entertaining movie been released. I last saw it years ago, but have had it on my Amazon wish list for some time. The only way to buy a DVD of Maxie there is by paying over $500 for it! I love this movie, but not that much, and so it languishes on my list.

This a lovely romantic film that was tossed away on first release and is well worth tracking and enjoying. I saw it on a double feature (and it screened first) with DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN and the audience were clearly annoyed when MAXIE started. They wanted the Madonna film. Within ten minutes it was clear we had been served a delicious appetiser. Within half and hour there was obvious surprise, and by the time 90 mins had passed we had all forgotten about Madonna. When intermission arrived, the crowd was buzzing with sheer delight at this wonderful timeless discovery and the audience went into SUSAN in such a good mood it played like funniest movie ever made. Add MAXIE to your list of 'must see' films. It the sort of small and rewarding film that causes a person at a party to scream with the thrill of meeting someone who has also seen it.