Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 6-August-06
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Once Around (1991)

"Once Around" is one of those pictures that looks modest yet attempts to encompass the stuff of Life, such as family, love, and what motivates a person to get up in the morning. Directed by Lasse Hallström with a European tendency to ramble, it's not especially profound or lovable but builds towards a message of substance.

The movie stars Holly Hunter as Renata Bella, a nice Italian girl by way of Boston who's knocked for a loop when her live-in boyfriend refuses to marry her. Looking to get her life on track with a new career, she attends a seminar on selling condominiums and there meets an older man named Sam Sharpe (Richard Dreyfuss). True to his name, Sam is an ace huckster of the kind that spews bawdy jokes, compliments his own taste, and never, ever takes no for an answer. In other words, he's obnoxious, but Renata is smitten with his self-assured bluster and immediately brings him home to the family. That's when her troubles (and triumphs) begin.

The Bellas are a tight clan presided over by a traditional father (Danny Aiello) and his lovely, supportive wife (Gena Rowlands). These two are taken aback by the abruptness of Sam's nature and appearance but still manage to extend a cordial welcome. Not so their other daughter (Laura San Giacomo), who returns from her honeymoon and advises Renata to quash the affair directly. Her concern isn't entirely sisterly, since she's discontented in her new marriage and sees something in Renata's romance that she lacks. What is it? Perhaps the pushiness that makes Sam a good salesman and annoying guest is the flip side of the passion that makes him Renata's big "adventure." Perhaps to live fully a person needs the enveloping security of family but also wild flight beyond the nest.

Finding a balance between these needs is Renata's challenge as she settles down with Sam and watches him progressively alienate her other loved ones. Dreyfuss stands out in the film's middle act by being both embarrassingly horrible and forgivably sweet. (Try not to wince as he stages an ill-timed coup on the microphone during one of the many singing scenes; try not to sympathize as he apologizes to Renata afterwards.) Is it the strength of his performance or does Sam become the story's central character, a lonely Lithuanian who finds happiness in the bosom of a woman and of a family that doesn't want him? The movie's title refers to the notion that we only get one pass at life, and Sam in particular shows how integral family is to the experience. Despite the rules and expectations that adhere, and the resulting struggles for an outsider, the fact of belonging makes the journey worthwhile. Everybody in the film is defined by this, and that concept gives "Once Around" its meaning.

Copyright © 2006 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.