For a film that was hard to track down, this was a monumental letdown. This movie was quite pricey on the online marketplaces but after Randy Quaid went off the deep end the price for the film dropped and I picked it up. I should have left it alone, for it was an unfunny, uninvolving dramedy with clichéd characters and situations. If Tom Jenkins' book is as bad as the screenplay adaptation he makes of his novel, then it must be a terrible read.
The film focuses on a down-on-his-luck, self-absorbed golfer, Kenny Lee (Quaid) and his trials an tribulations with the pro golf circuit, women and his own ego. He is in the midst of a failed marriage with Kathryn Harrold so he finds the floozies on the circuit acceptable, which leads him to sexy airhead Corinne Bohrer. With his marriage on the rocks, his golf game begins to rise but he can't quite apply the finishing touch and win a tournament. Something is needed, but is it something missing or something he is neglecting?
STORY: $ (What a terrible, unfulfilling story this makes. Jenkins borrows every plot device he employs in this film from better sources. We even have our "Magic Negro" caddy, well played by Larry Riley. The concept of love in the film--which is a predominate influence in the overall film--is watered down and not depicted well. You never get the impression that Quaid and Harrold have a strong relationship because Jenkins' skill as a writer is wanting. His clichéd ending will make you sigh with despair as will the insipid method he chooses to expose Bohrer and Brett Cullen's fling to Quaid. I don't know if Tom Jenkins wrote the screenplay or if he had his ten-year-old nephew pen it for him, but what we have here, for a finished product, is nothing professional but something juvenile and lacking any originality.
ACTING: $$ (The acting is hit or miss. Quaid, who I always liked as Cousin Eddie, struggles to give Kenny Lee much identity. As the lead he gives a very weak performance. The character actors do a far superior job. Both Jack Warden and Bibi Besch shine as eccentric Southerners that bankroll Kenny. Brett Cullen gives a strong performance as the playboy golfer and Corinne Bohrer is a treat as Kenny's free-spirited fling who resists the restraints of monogamy. Kathryn Harrold does a solid job with the limited resources Jenkins writes for her and DeLane Matthews does a quality job as the ever-faithful wife to the philandering Brett Cullen.
NUDITY: $$$$$ (Apparently, the reason this film has a high price tag isn't for the strength of the story--because it has no strength--but the allure of Corinne Bohrer's full frontal nudity. We already know she's a free-spirit (the politically correct term for a tramp) because she tells our hero that his marriage isn't an obstacle to him bedding her. Yet Jenkins feels his audience needs more proof that she's untethered and has her stroll down the motel hallway to fetch a pale of ice wearing nothing put her birthday suit. Corinne Bohrer, although typecast as an airhead, has an extraordinary, and natural body. It's quite sad when a film that isn't an erotic thriller has to rely on breasts, but that's all DEAD SOLID PERFECT has going for it--a dead solid perfect nude scene from Corinne.
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