The film follows a young woman named Emily who has faked her own kidnapping to get the attention of her rich father. Everything goes to plan and she even places herself in the trunk of her car in order to fool the police. Things go off the rails when a young man named Vincent decides to steal Emily’s car, with Emily still locked in the trunk. Vincent wants nothing to do with Emily or her plans and sets her free in the hopes everything blows over. Things get even more complicated however when Vincent’s place burns down, with Emily’s stolen car inside. This makes it seem as if Vincent kidnapped Emily and Emily is unwilling to clear him unless he helps her. Now Vincent and Emily are in over their heads together. What makes matters worse is that the pair might be falling for each other.
I had no idea what to expect for this film aside from the fact that it was labeled a comedy. Let me start by saying that the film isn’t a laugh out loud style comedy, instead it was more of a 90s style romantic comedy (which I guess counts as a comedy but it is a little different than a traditional comedy in my opinion). Watching it, I found the film to be decent but it also wasn’t exactly filled with memorable moments. It also had a slightly silly premise in my opinion. There was a sense of nostalgia watching this movie however because it felt very much like a film I would have rented at the video store as a kid.
After doing a little research on the film, I found out that the script for the film was the winner of the first annual Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition. I thought that was kind of a cool bit or trivia. I also found out that the amazing Aaron Sorkin did a rewrite of the script before it went into production (although it still tested poorly with audiences and had to undergo reshoots).
The film starred Alicia Silverstone and she actually was fairly good in the film. I have not seen much of her work outside of “Batman & Robin”, but I know she was never a critics darling. Still, she actually surprised me a bit in this movie as a result. Benicio del Toro is also sweet and charming in one of his first roles as Vincent. Harry Connick, Jr. has a small role as one of Vincent’s associates. The highlight of the film however is Christopher Walken as Emily’s uncle. Every role Walken takes on, he absolutely owns. I was surprised to see that Marco Brambilla directed this. Brambilla was fresh off of his debut film “Demolition Man” when he filmed this. As a big fan of “Demolition Man”, seeing his name on the credits definitely perked my interest.
“Excess Baggage” is the type of movie that takes you back to a different time when movies didn’t have to feel so overly complicated. While this movie might be easily forgotten, that is also the worst thing you can really say about the movie. The movie is your average romantic comedy and is worth checking out simply to see Benicio del Toro as a charming young actor.
No comments:
Post a Comment