September
20, 2002 | OK, stop me if you've heard this one: A free spirit flits
back into the life of a long-lost friend, eager to reminisce about their
shared past, only to find the former soul mate is an uptight straight-arrow
in desperate need of…
Oh.
You have heard it before. Like, maybe dozens of times? Well, here it
is again, with a slightly different spin: In The Banger Sisters,
girls, not boys, are the ones who just want to have fun.
Goldie
Hawn is perfectly cast as Suzette, a foul-mouthed, fiftysomething sprite
who still wants to party like it's 1969. Way back during the Age of
Aquarius, Suzette and best buddy Vinnie (Susan Sarandon) earned the
nicknames that give the movie its title as uber-groupies who
slept with just about every major rock star, and most of the minor musical
luminaries, in Greater Los Angeles. More than three decades later, Suzette
remains unabashedly proud of her legendary high jinks. (Give her half
a chance, and she'll lovingly describe how she was found one night under
an unconscious Jim Morrison in a nightclub bathroom.) But Vinnie has
changed her ways - indeed, she's even changed her name back to Lavinia
- to become an ultra-respectable wife and mother in suburban Phoenix.
The
last thing Lavinia wants is a blast from the past. Which, of course,
is precisely what she gets when Suzette, newly fired from her long-time
job as bartender at L.A.'s Whiskey A Go-Go, breezes into town in search
of financial assistance and moral support.
Written
and directed in plodding sitcom style by Bob Dolman, Banger Sisters
is so thoroughly predictable that, once you glean the premise from the
coming-attractions trailer, you'll likely be three or four steps ahead
of the plot before you drive into the megaplex parking lot, and never
fall behind during the movie itself.
Yes,
Lavinia is a demanding, control-freakish mother to her two teen-age
daughters. You guessed it: Suzette inspires her erstwhile sister groupie
to reappraise her uptight ways. And, of course, Lavinia's bland husband
(Robin Thomas) and mildly rebellious daughters - a stressed-for-success
honor student played by Erika Christensen ("Traffic") and
a spoiled brat overplayed by Eva Amurri (Sarandon's real-life daughter)
- can't believe the straight-laced Lavinia ever walked (and slept) on
the wild side.
That
is, they can't believe it until Suzette and Lavinia cap off a night
of hearty partying by getting stoned and viewing cherished photos of
their past conquests' private parts. I don't have to tell you who unexpectedly
walks in while they're giggling over the snapshots, do I?
The
Banger Sisters might have worked better if Dolman took a few chances,
and played against the expectations inevitably raised by such a familiar
plot. What if Suzette weren't such a lovably daffy cutie-pie? What if
she were pathetically delusional, or genuinely psychotic, while smashing
her way back into Vinnie's new life?
As
it stands, the movie is worth seeing only to savor Hawn's self-mocking
ebullience as a character who comes off as a grown-older version of
the sexy kooks she played three decades ago. In unfortunately sharp
contrast, Sarandon appears exceedingly uncomfortable as Vinnie, even
when the character is supposed to be loosening up. You can't help suspecting
that she's reflexively reacting against the phony-baloney machinations
of a movie in which characters are arbitrarily pushed around by the
dictates of the plot, and not driven by their own passions or desires.