Mixed Nuts
A holiday comedy with dark overtones, Mixed Nuts presents a supposedly humorous look at the behind-the-scenes events at a crisis hotline on Christmas Eve. Philip (Steve Martin) runs Lifesavers, a Venice, California organization dedicated to helping the depressed and troubled. Unfortunately, Philip is a bit down himself, having learned that Lifesavers is on the verge of eviction. His staff isn't feeling particularly helpful either, with Mrs. Munchnik (Madeline Kahn) giving gruff, often insulting advice, and Catherine (Rita Wilson) obsessing over her own unspoken love for Philip. As the holiday approaches, various weirdoes of all shapes and sizes -- from to a pregnant clothing store owner (Juliette Lewis) to a disenchanted Santa Claus (Anthony LaPaglia) -- begin dropping in, throwing the already strained office into utter chaos. Director Nora Ephron followed her smash success Sleepless in Seattle with this remake of the cult 1982 French comedy Le Père Noël est une Ordure, co-authoring the script with her sister Delia Ephron. However, Mixed Nuts met with little box office or critical approval, with most viewers finding the film's manic farce disappointingly forced and abrasive. more..
Director: Nora Ephron
Starring: Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, Rita Wilson, Anthony LaPaglia, Juliette Lewis
It's hard to create snap-crackling languor or laid-back frenzy. And there's also something condescending in the entire conception of Mixed Nuts.
Maybe there's too much talent. Every character shines with such dazzling intensity and such inexhaustible comic invention that the movie becomes tiresome, like too many clowns.
Mixed Nuts, opening today at Bay Area movie theaters, is laced generously with chuckles, though it neglects one little detail that helps make movies satisfying: a plot.
Mixed Nuts is that cinematic oddity: a film that's pretty awful, yet almost perversely endearing -- despite the tiredness with which it plays out its labored jokes before bringing them together in a gooey Christmas ending.
Mixed Nuts is a relentlessly hectic, poorly structured farce that falls embarrassingly flat. All the comedy here comes at the expense of the characters, reflecting a pronounced cruel streak in Ephron's work for the screen.
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