Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)

nTitle: Down and Outnin Beverly Hills (1986)

nDirector: Paul Mazursky

nCast: Richard Dreyfuss, Bette Midler, Nick Nolte, ElizabethnPena, Evan Richards, Little Richard

nReview:

nIn Down and Out in Beverly Hills we meet Jerry Baskin, a homelessnman who is happy talking all day to his dog ‘Kerouac’. Jerry lives a care freenlife being a beach bum, no worries, no responsibilities. Everything seems finenand dandy for Jerry until one day, as Jerry sleeps, Kerouac decides to go withna nice lady who offers him some food. Suddenly, Jerry is left without his dognpal and life turns meaningless for him. Apparently Kerouac was the only thingnbringing Jerry any joy. So, with all this sadness and despair in mind, Jerryndecides he wants to commit suicide, so he walks into a random house in BeverlynHills, empties his lungs and jumps into the pool, hoping to sink to the bottomnand die a quick death. Unfortunately, Mr. Whiteman, the owner of the house seesnhim jumping and decides to save Jerry’s life. From there on in, Mr. Whitemanndecides to take Jerry in for a couple of days, until he can stand on his ownntwo feet, turns out Jerry stays far longer than a couple of days!

nDown and Out in Beverly Hills reminded me in some ways ofnTakashi Miike’s Visitor Q (2001), a film in which an ominous character simplynand inexplicably becomes a silent observer of a Japanese family, where thisncharacter came from no one knows, but there he is. The purpose of this kind ofncharacter is to analyze the family unit from an objective standpoint, by havingna stranger visit them. In Down and Out in Beverly Hills it’s Jerry Baskin (NicknNolte), a homeless person, who gets to visit a multi millionaire Beverly Hillsnfamily, The Whitemans. In this family, everyone is unhappy, the wife is unhappynwith her sex life, the husband is having an affair with his Latin maid, the kidnwants to tell his parents he is gay but doesn’t know how to go about it, thendaughter is anorexic…each family member has got some sort of issue going onnthat they have to resolve, and Jerry, like some sort of god sent thing, is herento tell them what they need to do to be happy, he might be homeless, but henknows a thing or two about life. Jerry starts spewing advice left and right, makingneveryone happier after they listen to him. In this way, the film also remindednme of What About Bob? (1991) which coincidentally also starred Richard Dreyfussnas the father of yet another high class dysfunctional family. What About Bob? Actuallynreworks the same basic premise of Down and Out in Beverly Hills, but instead ofna bum, it’s a crazy guy that invades the family unit. I guess it could also be compared to films like Trading Places (1983) and Brewsters Millions (1985) because of the whole ‘rags to riches’ thing, but in my opinion, these last two films I’ve just mentioned are funny and good, Down and Out in Beverly Hills is far superior.

nCertain elements in the film hint at the fact that thenfilmmakers wanted to comment on racial issues with this film; I’m sure it’s noncoincidence that the rich millionaire family in the film is called ‘ThenWhitemans’. Here’s an example of hownthis film comments on racial issues, there is a moment in which the securitynalarm on Dave Whiteman’s home goes off; seconds later, there are police cars,nhelicopters and police dogs swarming his house! It’s at that moment that Dave’snneighbor (played by Little Richard) comes out of his home screaming at the topnof his lungs, complaining that the police don’t answer his calls as efficientlynas they should because he is black! He gives a pretty incendiary speech aboutnit. The Whitemans have a Hispanic live in made which Dave Whiteman is having annaffair with. After she has a talk with Jerry (the bum guru who introduces hernto subversive literature) she starts thinking that Mr. Whiteman only uses her,nthat he would never take her seriously because he considers her “third world”.nBasically, this film takes the rich “conservative” white man and places himnright smack in the middle of two of the biggest issues in society: race andnsexual orientation. I thought it was hilariousnthat at one point in the film Dave Whiteman is surrounded by a homeless man, bynBlacks, Chinese, Hispanics, and even a possibly gay son, so basically, thenending of the film is one gigantic smorgasbord of races and sexual orientations!nA police helicopter flies by, sees the whole shebang from above and screams “whatna fucking party!” I was laughing like a madman. But it’s the symbolisms thatnmake the scene impact you, we’re all in the same boat, we’re all on the samenparty, let’s just have a good time.

nAdd to the funny and the smarts, a pitch perfect cast!nRichard Dreyfuss has always been great at playing characters that lose theirntemper easily and here he does it again. There’s this scene where he is tellingnhis son that he should start learning the ropes of his coat hanger business,nand his son tells him that it’s not his thing to which Dave replies “You don’t likenhangers? It’s hangers that clothe you and it’s hangers that feed you!” Justnhilarious, but Dreyfuss doesn’t just play the hot tempered dude, his characternis layered, Dave is a rich guy who’sndoing some soul searching, he sees a freedom and a happiness in Jerry that he doesn’tnhave in his life. Same goes with Bette Midler who plays the air head wife who’snlost all passion in her life, she goes from guru, to guru looking for meaningnin her life. And finally, Jerry as played by Nick Nolte is the icing on thencake. He does the bum thing great, so well that even when Dave fixes him upnwith a haircut and new clothes, you still see that suffering and that painnbeneath the skin, in his soul. So we get all around great performances! Evennthe dog; ‘Matisse’ is likable, in fact, he is sometimes the most humane of allnthe characters.

nDown and Out in Beverly Hills was based on a French film fromndirector Jean Renoir called ‘Boudu sauve des eaux’ which translated means ‘Boudunsaved from drowning’, so in many ways, this is kind of like a remake, but fromnwhat I hear, not so much. I haven’t seen Renoir’s film, but I’m guessing it hasnlittle to do with Beverly Hills. It probably just borrowed the premise and wentnits own way with it, good thing is I am now curious to see Renoir’s film. All in all, I’d say that Down and Out innBeverly Hills was a hilarious movie, personally, I wasn’t expecting it to be asnfunny as it ended up being, and I certainly didn’t expect the film to have anbrain as well as some heart, 80’s comedies sometimes end up being a little toonsilly, but this one had just the right balance. Sadly, all too often in today’snmodern comedies vulgarity or repulsive situations are mistaken for comedy, and Inpersonally hate that. I much prefer films like Down and Out in Beverly Hills, trulynfunny films, with a bit of an edge and a whole lot of heart. I miss this kind of comedy, it’s the kind ofncomedy that John Hughes or Paul Mazursky (this films director) took pride innmaking, comedies that commented on social issues, but at the same time made usnlaugh like crazy. Very few directors do this today, comedies with a brain, sonclever that you don’t even notice the themes that are being addressed, you justnlaugh and laugh. It’s only later that you realize, wait a second; this film wasnactually saying something! Truly one of the best comedies of the 80’s, if younwanna take a trip down to the 80’s and laugh a whole lot while doing it, thisnis the way to go.

nRating: 5 out of 5