29 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
29 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
" six days , seven nights " is a summer movie that gets the summer movie experience deliciously right , a commendable achievement considering the season thus far has been littered with some pretty uneven fare .
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here's a genuinely fun fluff piece that knows it's fluff , recognizes it's fluff and is admittedly proud to be fluff .
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of course , the casting of harrison ford in the broadly comedic lead role plays a sizeable part in the movie's success ; ford is such a concentrated dramatic actor that it's easy to forget what a funny guy he can be .
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as his female counterpart , anne heche also deserves a big pat on the back for her sweet , goofily charismatic performance .
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the age difference ( ford's 56 , heche's 29 ) matters not -- these two click in a charged way that's hard to come by .
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the story is a no-brainer -- ford stars as gruff but loveable island aviator quinn harris , while heche is career-minded but loveable new york magazine editor robin monroe .
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robin , on a tropical vacation with fianc ? frank ( david schwimmer ) , gets assigned to supervise an emergency photo shoot in nearby tahiti , so she reluctantly hires quinn to fly her there .
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the plane crashes during a terrible storm , and they immediately find themselves stuck in a deserted paradise with few ideas on getting back to civilization .
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a series of unpleasant , often hilarious catastrophes leaves little choice but for both members of this unlikely odd couple to fall for each other .
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meanwhile , back at the resort , frank is tempted himself by quinn's shapely female tagalong ( jacqueline obradors ) .
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that subplot obviously exists to get us rooting for the quinn-robin pairing , and while it makes for a few good laughs early on , it eventually becomes a contrived distraction from the far more engrossing misadventures of quinn and robin .
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and since the film spends most of its time with the castaways , this flaw is only a minor inconvenience .
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director ivan reitman keeps the pace brisk .
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at a slim 101 minutes , " six days , seven nights " never wears out its welcome , where a lesser film could have felt like it was as long as its title .
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michael browning's clever screenplay allows for plenty of notable one-liners ( my favorite , taken in context , is " you mean _arrrgh_ pirates ? " ) , and though it essentially boils down to one mishap after another , they're all quite engaging .
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even the movie's more " serious " moments are played with a wink .
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heche has been under undeserved fire over whether or not her private life with ellen degeneres would affect the " believability " of " six days , seven nights " ' heterosexual pairing .
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( so she's a lesbian .
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so what .
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deal with it . )
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of course it doesn't , and here , her naysayers are proved wrong in a big way .
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in fact , her chemistry with ford is what really makes the film click ; these opposites attract with the utmost , endearing electricity .
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at one point , when the two are discussing the likelihood of romantic interest , heche asks ford how old he is .
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after several wrong guesses ( " forty-five ?
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_fifty_ ? " ) , he whispers his age to her .
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" you still look good , " heche stammers .
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" i still _am_ good , " ford replies .
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she's good too , and together , they make " six days , seven nights " one memorable ride .
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