In general, there are basically three main cities in American moviedom: Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. If it's set on the West Coast, it'll be in LA, for obvious reasons. (L.A. Confidential, Speed, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Chinatown, etc) If it's on the East Coast, then it's NYC, since they're pretty much alike as far as size and everything(King Kong, An Affair to Remember, What About Bob?, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Night at the Museum, Captain America: The First Avenger, Godzilla, Elf, etc.). Besides, NYC was originally the home of the film industry before everyone left for California. And they have all the book industry and Broadway and everything else. If it's somewhere in between, then it'll take place in Chicago(While You Were Sleeping, Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, A League of Their Own, etc).
You might include San Francisco and Washington, D.C. as the "back-up" cities, since if it's going to be in a city that's none of the following, likely one or the other will be where most of the action takes place. (The Maltese Falcon, Homeward Bound, Monsters Vs. Aliens for San Francisco, and for D.C., Dave, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and generally everything related to government or any of those where the White House gets destroyed.) And slightly behind them is Philadelphia(National Treasure, the Rocky series, Invincible, The Village, The Sixth Sense, Silver Linings Playbook).
Some movies even manage to include more than one of the main cities, for example, Searching for Bobby Fischer, National Treasure or Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, plus many others that I can't think of at the moment. But it's pretty much an endless loop: movies are set there because they always have been, and it's convenient, and so more movies are set there, because it's what's always been done. Books do this, too; The Princess Bride is a good example, as the narrator grew up in Chicago and now lives in New York.
There are some exceptions, of course; if it's adapted from a book it'll generally stay wherever the material was set, for example; somewhere in the Deep South(Hope Floats, The Blind Side, To Kill A Mockingbird, Steel Magnolias). Minneapolis is home base for the Mighty Ducks trilogy and Contagion. Or if there's a real-life college that's the setting, then that's an exception, too. (Legally Blonde, We Are Marshall, Rudy). And there's the ever-popular small Texas town(Friday Night Lights, The Big Green, The Astronaut Farmer, The Rookie).
But in general, most cities just aren't ever mentioned in literature or film. That's why O. Henry wrote a story about Nashville, because somebody said that a good story couldn't be made about anywhere than NYC. He thought it sounded like a good challenge, and so his friend randomly pointed at an atlas, and his finger landed on Nashville. It's a good story. But anyway, you just don't see movies set in Kansas City, Boise, Louisville, Tulsa, Portland or Wichita.
Which is why Sleepless in Seattle is so interesting. It's one of those films that's set partially in Chicago, D.C. and New York, but the main settings are Seattle and Baltimore - Both real places with lots of stories and real people, but they're unusual.
The movie opens in a Chicago cemetery around June 12, 1991, where Sam Baldwin is trying to comfort his son Jonah(and himself). Talking about his wife, Jonah's mother: "...Mommy got sick. And it happened just like that....There wasn't anything anybody could do. It isn't fair - there's no reason - but if we start asking 'Why?', we'll go crazy." After the funeral, Sam's sister Suzy tries to make sure they won't starve; providing Tupperware containers of food and quizzing him on basic food preparation.
We then cut to Sam's office at work; he's an architect. A concerned co-worker gives him his psychiatrist's phone number, to which Sam responds by piling a stack of business cards ranging from loss-of-spouse support groups to the Chicago Cancer Family Network to tons of others on the desk. "They say try all these things...give or get hugs...why not work? Work hard! Work will save you! Work is the only thing that will see you through this!" The coworker looks at him, surprised. "Don't mind him...he's just a guy who's lost his wife." Sam says of himself in third-person. (All of this in the first two minutes!) "What I think we really need is...a change." "That's a good idea; take a couple weeks off, go fishing..." "No, I mean like real change. A change of city. Someplace where every time I go around a corner I don't think of Maggie." "Where you gonna go?" "I was thinking about Seattle."
Cut to Seattle airport, Suzy and her husband Gary are there to help with settling in. And being a meddling sister who cares, she tries to talk him into thinking about dating again. He's not buying it.
At this point, the opening credits begin rolling. And ordinarily that's just a fact you accept and move on with the next scene. But this is different; because we see space, stretched over a map of the USA, and as every name pops up and disappears, there's a star in the sky. And one of those stars is a shooting star, trailing along on its way...
Bringing us across the country to Baltimore, eighteen months later. It's a fantastic transition. It's Christmastime, and Annie Reed and her fiance Walter are on their way to a get-together with her family, he's trying to figure out which people have which stories and quirks attached to them. (Because, really, all families do.) We get so much information about the characters and the world they live in right off the bat! From a storytelling perspective, it's awesome, because it draws the audience in immediately, and even better, makes a great first impression. So, over Christmas dinner with her large extended family, Annie announces her engagement. We also learn that Walter is an associate publisher and is allergic to everything, including flowers, nuts of all types and strawberries.
Annie's mom digs her wedding dress out of the attic for Annie to try on, and Annie tells her mom how they met: At a sandwich shop, they got each other's solely-lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches by mistake; hers on whole wheat(Walter was allergic to whole wheat as well) and his on white. Annie's mom rambles on about true love and magical first impressions and intuitions, which Annie totally blows off as superstitious and old-fashioned. Still, it kind of worries her...
So Annie's driving along the highway to D.C. to visit Walter's parents, singing off-key Christmas carols along with the radio. She changes the channel to Dr. Marcia Fieldstone's late-night call-in advice program, "You and Your Emotions". One of the callers is a little eight-year-old boy named Jonah, who's worried about his dad. His Christmas wish is that his dad can get a new wife. "You don't like the one he has now?" Dr. Fieldstone asks, amused. "That's the problem," Jonah says seriously. "He doesn't have one." "Where's your mom?" "She died." Dr. Fieldstone, becomes instantly sympathetic and tries to help, and Annie and everybody else in the listening audience feels just awful. She yells at the radio, arguing that Dr. Fieldstone's plan to help Jonah's dad is a terrible idea.
In Seattle, Jonah calls to Sam, who grouchily comes inside from staring at nothing out on the deck. He does that a lot. He gets Sam on the phone, who is (of course) suspicious, and thinks Dr. Fieldstone's plan to help him is a terrible idea. Jonah tries to get him to talk. "Dad, please? She's a doctor." "A doctor of what? Her first name could be Doctor!" He finally agrees, reluctantly.
It's awkward at first, but Annie and everyone else is starting to get interested, wondering what's going to happen. Jonah helps things along, answering a few of Dr. Marcia's questions, like is Sam sleeping at night(he doesn't sleep at all). "How do you know that?" "I live here, Dad." Maggie loved Christmas, and...it's just not the same without her. "Could it be that you need someone just as much as Jonah does?" "Yes!" Annie answers the radio, surprising herself. "This is kinda fun. And helpful!" Sam tells Jonah.
Annie pulls into a diner for a cup of tea, where the waitresses and customers are listening Dr. Marcia's show, too. The waitresses are arguing over what kind of person Sam is, disgusting Annie with their crude comments. She pulls back onto the highway as fast as possible.
Sometime later(Jonah is asleep by now), Sam's still on the phone. To kind of wrap up, Dr. Marcia asks what he's going to do. He thinks a minute. "Well...I'm gonna get out of bed; every morning, and breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while....I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed and breathe in and out...and then after a while I won't have to think about how..I had it great and perfect for a while." Annie's in tears now. "Sam, tell me what was so special about your wife." Dr. Marcia instructs. Sam smiles, "Well, how long is your program? Well, it was...a million tiny little things, that when you added them all up...it meant we were supposed to be together. And I knew it. ...It was like.." "Magic." Annie mutters to herself, at the exact same time Sam says the same word. A thoughtful Annie pulls up at Walter's parent's home as the show is ending, and Sam promises to call again and let Dr Marcia know how he's dong.
I just used five paragraphs to describe one sequence....wow. Can't remember ever doing that before.
Anyway, several days later we're at the Baltimore Sun office, where Annie works as a reporter. In the break room, one of her fellow reporters is pitching a story about the Soup Nazi to her editor, Becky(Rosie O'Donnell), with another reporter listening. Becky mentions that all the phone services in Chicago were tied up for two hours on Christmas Eve after some kid called a radio show saying his dad needed a new wife. Two thousand women had called the station asking for the guy's number. The two other reporters(both guys) look unimpressed. Annie's ears perk up, and she dives into the conversation. "I heard him!" She quickly recaps for everybody else the above five paragraphs, going on about how for no reason at all she suddenly started crying, and she and Becky have an exchange about cows and those phone company's commercials that are all emotional. The two guys look even more unimpressed and uncomfortable. Becky suggests Annie write a story on the whole thing. Everyone argues for a minute over some popular book that everyone was talking about. Annie, suddenly, "If somebody is a widowER, why do we say he was widowed? Why don't they say it 'widowERed'?" (I love this quote. It's the weird kind of question you ask often when you spend a lot of time around words.) Weird looks from everyone else. "I was just wondering."
On New Year's Eve, Walter and Annie make plans to meet in New York on Valentine's weekend. In Seattle, Sam wakes Jonah up so they can watch the Times Square ball drop. They've spent most of the night eating take-out and playing Monopoly. Sam tucks Jonah into bed, then wanders outside onto the deck as people shoot off fireworks. He wearily flops down onto the couch and falls asleep, dreaming about Maggie.
Remember, his job is as an architect, so he's constantly among construction projects at various clients' houses. This contractor he often works with, Jay(Rob Reiner), is there complaining about how all the lady's kitchen cabinets will have to be moved several inches to the left in order to fit the new refrigerator. And Jay and the client and the other guy they work with; really everybody in Seattle, it seems, has heard Sam on the radio. And they won't stop asking him about it. And the real problem is, the wall that would need to be taken our for this to work is load-bearing. (Amazing how you notice these things after remodeling a house.) That will take at least(?) twelve more weeks to work around, to be on the safe side.
Well, after that wonderful Monday at work, he gets home and there's this gigantic pile of letters from people all over the country. More specifically, letters from women who wish Sam was their husband. So he and Jonah begin digging through the enormous heap. Sam uses this as a geography lesson, since Jonah has no idea where Tulsa is, or where Oklahoma is. (Problem! Yes, Seattle is in the Pacific Northwest. But they lived in Chicago before that, and Illinois isn't exactly immediately recognizable as a place folks live. Besides, Oklahoma's the most distinctive shape of any of them, and only two states away from Illinois. If this story happened twenty years later, he would certainly know where Oklahoma was, at any rate; after the Sonics packed up.) "No," Sam says. "She looks like my third-grade teacher, and I hated my third-grade teacher. Wait a minute...she IS my third-grade teacher!" He resolves to ignore all the letters that arrive, leaving Jonah to sort through them if he wants to before setting them in the trash can. While they're brushing their teeth that night, Jonah winds up with no warning, "If you find a new wife and all, are you gonna have sex with her?" Sam's shocked, of course, as he should be. "Well, I certainly hope so!" He then questions where Jonah's heard of such things.
Walter's allergies are further driven home in the next scene, and HE SNORES. LOUDLY AND OBVIOUSLY. So Annie wanders into the kitchen and looks for a snack. (Mute this scene, audio isn't necessary to understand. And besides, there's sappy music on the soundtrack.) She flips on the kitchen radio, a highlight collection of Dr. Marcia's show is on. (Turn the sound back on now.) The end of Sam's ("Sleepless in Seattle", in radiospeak) call is replayed, and Annie sits down at the table, peels an apple and listens. It sounds simple, but it's the intensity with which she listens...it's some of the best acting I've ever seen.
Later that morning/the next day(Tuesday-ish) she drives over to her brother Dennis' office for some advice. It's a good exchange of grown-up siblings trying to sort out issues. After Annie incoherently explains what's up, Dennis answers, not fully up to speed yet: "It rains nine months of the year in Seattle." "I know! I do NOT want to move to Seattle. But what I really don't want to do is end up always wondering what might have happened and knowing I could have done something...."
Meanwhile, back in Seattle, Jay tries to give Sam advice on dating in the 90's, which is confusing and bewildering. "Just think of Cary Grant, how he did things. All...suave and confident and everything." It takes a while to think over. But eventually Sam decides to call somebody - anybody - the decorator of that house with the cabinet problem - to see if she wants to go on a date. We also meet Jonah's friend Jessica, the only person around his age that he seems to know(besides somebody named Jed, who has cable). This decorator, Tori, agrees to go on a date with Sam on Friday at 7:30.
In Baltimore, Annie's working on the "Sleepless in Seattle" story, Becky's watching the Cary Grant movie An Affair to Remember. Becky points out that Annie's a basketcase; she started working on a letter to the guy herself! (Annie reading) "I would like to meet you." That boat-docking scene on the TV. "At the Empire State Building," Becky says. "Sure, why not? I can squeeze it in." (Annie types this out.) "What am I saying?!" (Crumples letter and flops on couch to watch rest of movie.) They watch in tears, quoting along. "Men never get this movie." (Insert some Little Rascals reference here, like Stymie loudly proclaiming "No we don't!".)
While they're crying over some silly movie, Jonah's having a nightmare that the house is sinking and calling for his mom. Sam runs to the rescue, comforting him as best he knows how. They talk about Maggie. "I'm starting to forget her." a very worried Jonah says. Sam gives him a hug. "She could peel an apple in one long, curly strip....The whole apple. I love you, Jonah." (From a storytelling perspective, this is terrific information. We just saw someone peeling an apple....)
Montage of quick cuts as Sam stares off along the Sound, thinking on his deck, while Annie walks around Baltimore Harbor to think. (This is a good example of film storytelling, though I can't explain exactly why it's good film storytelling.)
The next day Annie gets started for real on that "Sleepless in Seattle" story, and she uses her journalistic skills to find info about Sam. She has an Orioles cap decorating her desklamp.
Friday night Sam's EXTREMELY nervous about this whole 'dating' thing. Like, Danny Tanner handles it well compared to him. (That's an interesting idea; DJ or Joey could have heard the show, talked Danny into offering Sam advice somehow...that's what happens when you watch movies/shows from this time period....you invent connections that could tie everything together in an interesting, curveball-like way.) Anyway, Jonah finds Annie's letter and starts to read it. "Dad! Look at this!" He skims quickly, noting that the letter mentions that Brooks Robinson was the greatest third baseman of all time. They walk over to the map. "See? Seattle's here. And Baltimore's there. There's like...twenty-six states in between. That's not gonna work." He then leaves for his date with the decorator, which goes...uh, fine, I guess? Awkward, but...you gotta start somewhere. It goes well enough that she offers to cook him and Jonah a meal several nights later.
Jonah doesn't like her. (For one thing, she can't cook. She doesn't much care for baseball, she doesn't enjoy camping. And she has this high-pitched cackle.) Sam and Tori complain about their mutual client, who's now on her sixth painter and suddenly she wants the fireplace rebricked. And then....Sam kisses her! So, Jonah calls Dr. Marcia's show.
So he's on the air, complaining, and then Annie gets woken up by Becky's phone call complaining that Annie's got her hooked and informing her that Jonah's on the show again. Dr. Marcia isn't helpful enough this time; Jonah hangs up and screams bloody murder. With getting up so suddenly in the middle of the night and then the radio and everything....Annie's worn to a frazzle.
The next day Jonah shows Jessica the "good" letter. She suggests that he write to Annie, as it's "YOH"(Your Only Hope. Jessica'd be a master texter.) So they write and mail the letter, and in Baltimore, Becky agrees that this story needs to be investigated more closely. So the letter crosses West Coast to East Coast, while Annie's on the flight going the other way. (The opening-credits map is shown again, as it tracks her flight.) Jonah and Sam are at Seattle International Airport anyway, because Tori the annoying decorator is going on a business trip someplace. Jonah's impolite, of course. Sam: "...He's eight." Tori: "He's good at it." As Sam is lecturing his son about good manners in public, the arrivals from an incoming plane walk past(Amazing how much freedom was allowed in pre-9/11 airports....one of the wild things about life in these movies) and Annie happens to be one of the passengers getting off. For some reason, Sam sees this pretty woman walk by, and loses track of where the lecture was going.
But no matter, there's a fishing expedition to be undertaken! Annie watches from a distance. It's really kind of stalkerish, actually....which is kind of creepy. But Annie knows it's creepy and stupid, so....that's makes it slightly-less-creepy. As a good reporter, she calls her editor that night to give an update. "How did I get here?" "You told a lie and got on a plane?" "That's not what I meant!" So, she tries again the next day. (Wow. This movie covers many, many days.) Also, this particular day is very sunny, like most of the days in Fernfield seem to be in the Air Bud movies. (Fernfield is also in Washington, btw.) She courageously starts to walk up to introduce herself - and a lady comes up and Jonah gives her a great big hug, and then Sam hugs her. So it must be that he's found a girlfriend and this whole trip was just a stupid waste of time...
It's Sam's sister, Suzy; she and Gary are in town for a visit. There's this woman standing in the middle of the road, and she nearly gets run over by a semi. And it's that woman from the airport....Sam wanders over, curious. "Hello." "Hello." the woman answers nervously, and then she immediately leaves and heads home. Becky's anxiously awaiting the report and story, and when she hears it she goes straight to the VCR and plays that scene from An Affair to Remember, noting the weird similarities. Annie freaks out, realizing fully how ridiculous her behavior's been, and then she notices Jonah and Jessica's letter. So she reads it, disgusted at the quality of the writing(she's a reporter, remember?). "The only thing is....she looked like somebody we would've been friends with."
In Seattle, Sam, Suzy and Gary are talking. "Yes, I saw her in the airport, and then when we picked you guys up. It was very weird, like I knew her." "Hey, at least you're seeing people again, that's a start." Gary says. Jonah complains about Tori. "She laughs like a hyena." "No she doesn't....Okay, well.....Sort of." Sam admits. He then tells Suzy and Gary about Jonah calling the radio show and everything, including that Annie would like to meet them at the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day. "Oh! It's like that movie!" Suzy exclaims. "What movie?" Sam and Gary ask. "An Affair to Remember. didn't you guys ever see that?" She then explains the whole thing, breaking down in tears halfway through the summary. Sam, Gary and Jonah stare blankly. "That's a chick's movie," Sam says finally. He and Gary then make fun of Suzy by pretending to cry over the ending of The Dirty Dozen.
Maybe she talks them into watching it, because the next day Jonah's watching it at Jessica's house. "This is the best movie I've ever seen in my whole life!" she sobs. "What's so great about it?" Jonah asks, bored. They then hatch a plan for Jonah to fly to New York to meet Annie since his dad won't. (Strains logic in terms of reality, but it makes sense within the movie.)
We skip ahead in time to around Valentine's Day, and Annie's in New York with Walter. They go shopping for china and stuff. Jonah's disappeared; on a play to NYC, and so Sam quickly follows, trying to catch up. (Another appearance of the map.) Being an eight-year-old, once he gets to the Empire State Building, Jonah begins asking every woman he sees if she's Annie. They aren't. She's having dinner with Walter, where she breaks off her engagement. Sam finds Jonah, and they start to head home. Annie's heading to the Empire State Building, because, yes, it's crazy...but....well, she just has to find out. (And besides, the movie's almost over.) They've just closed, but she convinces the security guard to let her go up and see(he knows the reference; it's his wife's favorite movie). There's nobody up there, it's empty. But there is a little kid's backpack....so, with nothing else to do, she starts inspecting it. There's a teddy bear inside. They come back for the forgotten backpack, and there's this lady there, that one from the airport...."Are you Annie?" Jonah asks. "Yes." "This must be yours." she hands Jonah the teddy bear. "I'm Jonah. This is my dad. His name's Sam." "And who's this?" Annie asks, indicating the teddy bear. "That's Howard." They all walk into the elevator. "It's nice to meet you, Sam." she says. The end.
So, it's kind of predictable in some ways. And there's an unbelievable amount of luck needed for everything in the plot to work out the way it did. But it works. Because of the way the story's handled throughout, and especially the ending. We don't know what's going to happen next, and so that decision is left for the viewer to decide. If this was a typical movie, that wouldn't have happened, we'd get a completely expected(and unnecessary and unsatisfying) extra scene at the least continuing the tale.
Did they start dating? Did they get married? Were they both so embarrassed that nothing really ever developed? The movie doesn't answer those questions, and it shouldn't. So, was there a happy ending? I doubt it; since there's a certain set of expectations that come with that phrase, because happy endings usually only happen in fairy tales, and this isn't one of those. Life sort of gets in the way. But I do think they got married eventually, and things went well for the most part, though their new life was full of everyday problems like house payments and cars breaking down and things like that.
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