Cadillac Man

This movie is funny, insightful, and alarming all at the same time. This is a synopsis of mostly Italian American life in working class burroughs of NY (Queens, Long Island, whatever). Joey (Robin Williams) is juggling two neurotic girlfriends and an ex-wife while struggling to keep his job as a smooth talking car salesman. The movie starts off with a shot of a cemetery in Queens, the biggest damn cemetery I have ever seen. It gives you the feeling of crowdedness, that even in death people are crowded and are probably still arguing over elbow room. Joey is desperate and even tries to sell a car to a widow as she is burying her husband. Eventually, a distraught and somewhat deranged husband of the car dealer's secretary takes over the dealership with a machine gun, convinced that somebody there is screwing with his sexy wife (which is true). It isn't Joey, but he takes the rap and tries to talk the guy down, doing a pretty good job. Car salesman becomes psychologist, and he does an amazingly good job, along with help from a phone call from both his wife and his mother to the distraught man. This is the best part of the movie. You see Joey and Larry (Robbins) play out this scene with both humor and fright. Larry is trying to prove his manhood to his wife. You understand his plight and feel his pain, and at the same time you see the mans compassion, especially with the phone calls from Joey's ex-wife and mother. There is something very real about this scene and I would think that someone who has to talk down a hostage situation might gain something from watching how Joey makes connections with Larry on a personal level. Eventually Larry sees what a mess Joey's life is and starts to see that actually his situation isn't that bad. This movie is as much about the alienation and frustration of modern life as anything else. The movie is loud and frantic and might put you off in that respect, but hang with it.