Made in the wake of such quirky, mid-1980s successes as AFTER HOURS (1985) and SOMETHING WILD (1986), this NYC-based comedy of errors tried to jump on that same bandwagon, with an eccentric but unsuccessful mix of frustrated artists, media stardom, romance, and the mob. Art-house diva
Hanna Schygulla stars as a woman thrust into crime and instant fame; her equally wasted costars include Alec Baldwin, in his screen debut, and Blondie lead singer Deborah Harry.
German immigrant Elaine (Hanna Schygulla), who lives in a low-rent area of NYC, works at a toilet seat company while she dreams of becoming a famous writer. Life is a downward spiral for Elaine: her friend, Diana (Annie Golden), gets her a job writing a porno screenplay, her literary agent is
bored with her work, and her blind date conveniently forgets his wallet. Meanwhile, mystery woman Lulu (Deborah Harry) is spotted in the background, roaming the same streets. Just when Elaine's world gets so depressing that she buys a gun and considers suicide, her life changes, starting with the
accidental robbery of a fur coat from a passing couple. Inside the fur, Elaine finds a photo of Lulu and a set of keys, but when she visits the apartment to which the keys belong, she becomes the only survivor of a botched drug bust.
Going to the police with her story, Elaine becomes a media superstar with a best-selling book and a gig on Dr. Ruth Westheimer's talk show. On the down side, she's so busy with her newfound celebrity that she doesn't realize that a charming policeman named Buck (Alec Baldwin) is attracted to her,
Diana is alienated by her attitude, and the Mob is out to settle the score. After an attempt on her life, Elaine tries to track down Lulu at an S&M club. After that fails, she is taken hostage by the Mob at a fish market and is rescued by Buck--who's conveniently on duty nearby. In the aftermath,
they discover that the photo of Lulu is actually a secret list of the city's biggest dope dealers, and Buck and Elaine make love on the floor, surrounded by the dead mobsters.
Although this comic-romance obviously strives for the same quirky urban attitude as DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN (1985), the only part director Amos Kollek gets right is "desperate." All of his characters are painfully inane, while their misadventures lurch along, with little energy. The film's only
real success is in finding some authentically grungy NYC locales---from Times Square, to the Fulton Fish Market, to Chinatown. Unfortunately, there's little in the way of reality once these characters open their mouths. The most noteworthy aspect of the film is its eccentric cast. First and
foremost, this is a severe wrong turn for Schygulla, who spent the early '80s in films by Fassbinder, Wajda and Godard, only to come to America and turn up in this fatuous fare. And although second billed, Harry's role is an embellished cameo, with almost no dialogue. Baldwin emerges unscathed in
his one-dimensional role, while director Kollek casts himself as Schygulla's unhelpful agent. Nowadays, the biggest laugh is purely unintentional, when "Seinfeld"'s Wayne Knight turns up in a tiny role of a fetish freak who enjoys sucking women's shoes. Equipped with a cast far better than the
material deserves, this is a misguided mess of good intentions, bad decisions and vapid characters. (Violence, nudity, profanity.) leave a comment
