The first scene in "Home Fries" shows a middle-of-nowhere
Burger-Matic restaurant, where the latest customer grabs a shake from the
drive-thru window and starts on his way home, but on the way he's chased by a helicopter and dies of a heart attack.
Clearly, this isn't an ordinary romantic comedy, even though when it was first released in late 1998 it was heavily advertised as such. The story, supposedly, is a romance featuring Luke Wilson and Drew Barrymore, but there's also more than a few hints of dark comedy in this offbeat movie.
Barrymore is radiant as a very-pregnant employee at the
Burger-Matic - and that now-dead customer (Chris Ellis) is the father of her child, married to a deliciously insane Catherine O'Hara. Barrymore broke it off as soon as she found out Ellis was married, but O'Hara didn't
take things so well...
She was so upset, in fact, that she convinced her sons (Wilson and Jake Busey) to give him a good scare with a National Guard helicopter. But it worked too well - "Did I ever use the word `kill?'" O'Hara asks, privately glad to see the philanderer gone while publicly making a
high-decibel spectacle of herself.
In the process of tying up the loose ends in this bizarre scheme, including radio interference from the Burger-Matic headsets, Wilson gets a job there and inevitably falls for Barrymore. O'Hara isn't too pleased with this, and the movie ends just about where it began - with another helicopter chase, while Barrymore practices her Lamaze breathing.
"Home Fries" is both romantic and comedic, but the two seldom meet. Even the camera agrees with this - scenes that are supposed to be funny are shot in brighter colors, usually outdoors. Conversely, the romantic scenes are muted, perhaps due to the lighting, perhaps due to the restrained performances of Wilson and Barrymore. They pull off the romance subplot elegantly, but they're forced to compete with O'Hara and Busey for both screen time and impact. Playing the juicy roles of villains to the hilt, they also further the disparity between "romantic" and "comedy."
As a romance, "Home Fries" is almost a hit. Barrymore is a wonderful actress, hitting all the right notes, down to the subtle flutter of her eyelashes. But writer Vince Gilligan, whose time writing for "The X-Files" is apparent, doesn't always pay enough attention to the romance; with comic talent like Catherine O'Hara on board, though, it's hard to blame him. Fortunately, the dark comedy is as on-target as the large-caliber guns on those Army helicopters.
Yet another response to Everything Quests: Film Reviews.