The Accidental Tourist

There are certain movies out there that are remembered because they show up on lists of Oscar-winning films in certain categories. I've argued that an early talkie like Min and Bill would probably be largely forgotten if Marie Dressler hand't won the Oscar; ditto Norman Taurog's win for directing Skippy. Another example of this, I think, is Geena Davis' Supporting Actress Oscar win in The Accidental Tourist.

Obviously, Davis isn't the star here. That honor goes to William Hurt, playing Macon Leary. Macon is a travel writer who writes no-nonsense travel guides that are less about giving people ideas of what to see than ideas about how to make the traveling much less stressful. There's some stress in his personal life, however. His son died a year ago, and Macon hasn't been able to deal with it emotionally, instead responding by shutting himself off from the world and being emotionless. Macon's wife Sarah (Kathleen Turner), who obviously suffered the same loss, has decided that she can no longer deal with Macon's keeping everybody at an emotional arm's length, and is filing for divorce.

The couple lives in a house in Baltimore that was the old family place of Macon's parents which he and his siblings apparently inherited and never sold, so Sarah moves out while Macon stays there together with their dog Edward. Macon has to go on another trip for his job, and takes the dog to a new kennel since the previous one said he tried to bite people. At the new kennel is Muriel Pritchett (Geena Davis), who not only boards dogs but also trains them in a slightly unorthodox style. At least, I've never heard it suggested to cluck the way she does to express approval with the dog's behavior. In any case, the two become friends.

They actually become more than friends, which means that each gets introduced to the other's family, or what little there is of it. Muriel only has a young son, who has all sorts of allergies. Macon has three siblings. There's unmarried and immature brothers Charles (Ed Begley Jr.) and Porter (David Ogden Stiers), along with sister Rose (Amy Wright) who has been spending so much time taking care of other people that she's never been able to attend to her own emotional needs. There's also Macon's editor Julian (Bill Pullman), who is similarly unmarried but would be right for Rose, if only anyone can convince Rose that there might be anybody out there who truly loves her.

Eventually, Rose and Julian do get married. But Rose decides Sarah should be her matron of honor, the divorce not having gone through yet. This brings Sarah back into Macon's life, and things begin to get really complicated. Macon starts to have thoughts about going back to Sarah, but this would mean abandoning Muriel's son, who might be the one person in the world for whom Macon can form a true emotional attachment.

It all comes to a head in a most peculiar way. Macon has to go on another trip since, after all, he's a travel writer. However, as he's in his seat on the plane waiting to fly off to Paris, who should show up but Muriel? Not only that, but she's without the kid, who is being left to a series of friends to help take care of while Muriel follows her flighty (no pun intended) desire of needily following Macon around in an attempt to win him back. And she's pretty obnoxious once we get to Paris, consistently interrupting Macon when he's supposed to be on business. And then Macon's back goes out, and the brilliant idea is had to send Sarah over to France to do all the traveling Macon is supposed to do while he's laid up in his hotel room.

Geena Davis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role, and she does a good job. But I think, having watched the movie, that there's a good reason why The Accidental Tourist has become a relatively forgotton film. The big problem is that most of the characters are pretty emotionally repressed, which makes it hard to have much sympathy for them. Muriel is one of the few who isn't, but once she abandons her son to go to Paris and harass Macon, it gets hard to have much sympathy for her too. Some of this criticism may be a bit harsh, as William Hurt especially does a good job with what is a difficult character to play. I think I made the comment in regards to Ordinary People that having to play icy like Mary Tyler Moore did isn't easy, but doesn't necessarily look like you're playing a difficult role; while Sissy Spacek, who beat out Moore for the Oscar by playing 30 years of Loretta Lynn, got something showy and easy to make people understand that it's really good acting. Hurt is definitely in Mary Tyler Moore territory here.

The Accidental Tourist ist also a very talky movie, and one that goes rather leisurely about its business at right about two hours. This deliberate pacing may make some people consider the film a bit of a slog. But don't overlook the performances, as The Accidental Tourist is actually a pretty good grown-up movie for people who want something intelligent and thought-provoking.