Out Of Towners (1999)

This remake of the 1970 Neil Simon film is a dim replica of the original. I have nothing against remakes on principal but there’s an almost sad desperation to make this funnier than the original that they forget what made the original work in the first place. A married couple (Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn) from Ohio visit New York so he can interview for a job but everything goes horribly wrong starting from the rerouting of the flight to Boston and it just gets worse. The narrative is kept but Neil Simon’s often pungent writing style (and this was one of his best screenplays) is gone. Simon’s screenplay had a foot in reality and Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis played recognizable (if slightly exaggerated but then that’s what comedy is all bout, isn’t it?) human beings and his frustration and her fear were palpable. But here Steve Martin is reduced to doing his “wild and crazy guy” schtick and Goldie Hawn overplays the adorable. They’re caricatures but to be fair, the script didn’t offer them anything to play. In the Simon film, the laughs felt organic. Here, they’re too obvious and forced. With John Cleese, Cynthia Nixon and Joe Grifasi.