For my money, one of the great lost movies of the 90s.I see why it failed at the time — it’s deeply uncomfortable, especially for a “romantic comedy.” But its awkward, cringey vibe essentially IS comedy now, so I really do feel like it’s ripe for rediscovery. I’ve noticed The Family Stone getting a lot of love in recent years, and while I really like that movie, I wish its fans knew about the similar, but superior Once Around.It’s SO unusual in its tone that it feels foreign, and that may be the influence of the great Swedish director Lasse Umlaut Halstrom (My Life as a Dog, Gilbert Grape). The script is by Malia Scotch Marmo, and it’s tragic we don’t have 10 more movies like this from her. It’s an amazing screenplay. So rich in character detail. Adamant about not going for easy payoffs. (Apparently Spielberg loved it too, he hired her to write drafts of Hook and Jurassic Park.)Richard Dreyfuss is incredible, maybe at his best here. And the role must have seemed unplayable on paper. In any other movie, the Dreyfuss character would have been off to the side — a too loud and too in-your-face uncle who tells dick jokes and puts everyone on edge. Here he’s the ROMANTIC LEAD. The beautiful balancing act of the script and his performance is that you completely understand both why Holly Hunter’s character would fall madly in love with him AND why her family wants him dead. Holly Hunter is my favorite actress. She is so amazing in this that I don’t even care about her rather batshit Boston accent that comes and goes and that nobody else in her family really seems to have. She glows. She makes other actresses look slow and lazy. She and Dreyfuss have outrageous chemistry, and like... they shouldn’t! I love her.This is Danny Aiello’s best role outside of Do the Right Thing. Every time he starts to feel like a generic riff on the set-in-his-ways Italian patriarch, he reveals some hidden depth, some surprising hurt inside. The scene with the travel brochures, Jesus Christ. There’s a moment near the end involving Dreyfuss and Aiello that had me crying like a man who’s been stuck inside for 6 months and probably will be for 6 more. Needed it, baby! This is a beautiful movie, and I love it. (It’s so good, I didn’t even mention Gena Rowlands is in it! She is, and she’s awesome!) It is above all alive, in a way few movies are. It’s also very strange, and frequently hard to watch. It’s pretty difficult to find too, but the DVD is 10 bucks on Amazon. Even if you DON’T like it, I bet you’ll return to it. It sticks with you. I’ve watched it once a year since I was 13.
“What am I talking about? I'm trying to tell that from the first minute I ever saw you... Renata, look at you. Look at you! Everything you do: the way you eat your food, the way you put on your shoes, the way your eyes are looking at my mouth when I'm talking to you. Renata, you name anything you do - the way you hug your mother, the way you talk to your family—you move me!” – Sam SharpeOnce Around is one of those unfairly forgotten gems from the early ’90’s. Holly Hunter looks as though she is going to be single forever until she meets a man of no comparison in Richard Dreyfuss. Well into her thirties, she lives under the house rules of her parents Danny Aiello and Gena Rowlands. He is a loud Lithuanian self-made millionaire who has the money to drive anybody around in a limousine. Then there is the newly married sister Laura San Giacomo. And the brother Danton Stone who looks like a terrorist but is rather cuddly.The Italian-American Bella family is a scrupulous, well-behaved bunch who abide to a certain etiquette—in short, be humble. They are turned-off by Sam Sharpe, a vulgarian with off-color jokes for every occasion, the kind of man who steals the mic to sing his country’s traditional song for the raucous joy of it. But they cannot completely hate Sam, for he has a way of getting you to like him. Even love him for a moment. Yet…“For christsakes—he puts money in women’s breasts!” is a moment where the women in the family recoil. Hunter promises that she is going to cool her jets, but Dreyfuss is hard-pressed for marriage and he’s one of the most impossible people to say “No” to. Before you know it, he is already moving his condo-selling empire from New York to Boston to be close to the family. A family that never wants him to be fully one of them. The older you are, and with the more experience you have being inside opposites attract relationships, the finer this Lasse Hallström (“My Life as a Dog”) film will seem to you. The only problem with Hallström at his best is that he seems to choose stories that are highly stimulating and neurotically appealing for about two-thirds, until they hit their plateau, and then the beginning of his third acts’ sputter for a few minutes. Or slightly lose their energy. That is by no means a condemnation of Hallström or this particular film, but it’s a reason I cannot quite rate it a meritorious four stars. But to praise the best elements, Hunter is loveable here and Dreyfuss is arrogant in a captivating and swell way. Aiello and Rowlands are pitch-perfect in the way the sway back in forth in their feelings with this vulgarian. But I gotta say, Dreyfuss is the wrong possible husband for their daughter but it’s not in the exact way the parents believe it is wrong. With Dreyfuss’ anything-goes lifestyle, he is gonna run his life into the ground with no sense for longevity—something the Bella family should concern themselves with.
Lasse Hallström's a bit of a funny one - he made some pretty great and interesting films fairly consistently through much of his early career, and then just hit the millennium and completely nosedived. Luckily, this one's from 1991, when he was still making engaging films. A film full of great character actors playing interesting, complex characters. I had no idea which direction this film was going at times, and haven't worked out if that's a good or a bad thing, but as a result, it stands as a very compelling family drama.
