The Tall Guy

The Tall Guy
Sept. 21, 1990
Working Title Films
Comedy, romance
DVD
B

This is another decade-straddler, released in '90, listed as '89 in IMDB, and in fact copyright '88.  Similarly, it's a very British movie with a very American star, Jeff Goldblum.  He's paired with then almost 30-year-old Emma Thompson, in her first film, although she'd done some stage and TV work.  The director Mel Smith (who'd made Morons from Outer Space a few years before) and writer Richard Curtis (whose later films I have mixed feelings about) both have uncredited cameos.  And Rowan Atkinson, who is cruelly parodying himself, had worked with Curtis on Black Adder.  (Much of the cast here had small roles on that TV series.)  So there's an endearing semi-newbies-larking-about feel to the movie, even a quarter century later.

As in Morons, the closing credits show comedy highlights edited jerkily to a pop song, in this case Madness's "It Must Be Love," which earlier appears in a sort of music-video, where much of the cast (including Goldblum's underwear) sing along.  There are in fact two great sequences in this film, surrounded by some pretty good stuff: the room-wrecking sex scene and the five minutes of the stage-musical version of The Elephant Man, known as Elephant.  (It's never clear if this includes an exclamation point.)  As funny as what happens onstage is, the best part is Thompson's trying-to-be-supportive-but-terribly-appalled reaction, as Goldblum's "nymphomaniac" live-in landlady (platonic with him) eats the cheesiness up.

Getting back to that sex scene, when I first saw this movie with a roomful of friends about twenty years ago, we all laughed uproariously at it, then rewound and laughed hard a second time.  It is also sexy of course, but then I have crushes on both Goldblum and Thompson.  The thing is, they both look far from their best here.  Her hair is too short, his too long; and their clothes are unflattering.  But somehow that adds to the charm of the movie, that it's deliberately unglamorous.  And they both have amazing eyes and smiles, especially when they look at each other, so who cares really?  He's playing a struggling actor named Dexter King (working for "Ron Anderson," Curtis was being semi-autobiographical), and she's a deadpan nurse named Kate Lemon.  The plot is slight but it's more of a character comedy, and the characters are definitely interesting, including the supporting cast.

Two decades ago, I'd have rated this higher, a B+ or maybe even an A-, but I have seen it several times and, as with Morons, much of the novelty has worn off.  It's the kind of movie I wouldn't want to oversell, since it is just a little gem, relatively obscure in Thompson's and of course Goldblum's ouevre.  But as "un film de Mel Smith," it's très bon.

Robin Driscoll, who was Space Pilot in Morons, is one of the Actors in Agent's Office here.  Another future Harry-Potterite, then 25ish Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), makes his big-screen debut here, as Doctor #2.

It must be love, love, love.