For some reason, a slew of movies in 1980 mark a turning point in my developmental teen years: 9 to 5, A Coal Miner's Daughter, Private Benjamin, et.al. HTBTHCOL is yet another...one that took a long time to eventually come out on DVD.
It's even funnier than I'd remembered. While the story is good and the acting is ok, it's the cultural references circa 1980 that totally make the movie work for me (I'm 36 yrs old in '04). Jane Curtain's '80 Cutlass sucking gas, her oh-so-'70s contemporary house--complete with green bedspread and Buick-sized answering machine, the endless references to inflation, the grocery store cashier actually saying the name of each item before ringing it up by hand ("toy gun, $1.95..."), etc.
Jane Curtain actually does give the best performance, not only for her manic attempts to find cash, but for her impromptu striptease ("are you ready to see 1985, or should we skip right to 1990?"). The chemistry between Jane and Jessica Lange's character is quite good. Poor Susan Saint James...her character is annoying, whiny, and basically she serves as the Curly of this trio. (Yeah, I'd bring my kids to rob a store too...)
In all, this is a cute, silly time capsule to the dark days of inflation, 17% mortgage interest rates, slanted wood houses with lots of poorly utilized space, ferns, etc. One funny note: Jane Curtain's character makes numerous references to prostitution (to the gas station attendant, to the gals at the restaurant, and to Jack--the copy played by Dabney Coleman).
It's even funnier than I'd remembered. While the story is good and the acting is ok, it's the cultural references circa 1980 that totally make the movie work for me (I'm 36 yrs old in '04). Jane Curtain's '80 Cutlass sucking gas, her oh-so-'70s contemporary house--complete with green bedspread and Buick-sized answering machine, the endless references to inflation, the grocery store cashier actually saying the name of each item before ringing it up by hand ("toy gun, $1.95..."), etc.
Jane Curtain actually does give the best performance, not only for her manic attempts to find cash, but for her impromptu striptease ("are you ready to see 1985, or should we skip right to 1990?"). The chemistry between Jane and Jessica Lange's character is quite good. Poor Susan Saint James...her character is annoying, whiny, and basically she serves as the Curly of this trio. (Yeah, I'd bring my kids to rob a store too...)
In all, this is a cute, silly time capsule to the dark days of inflation, 17% mortgage interest rates, slanted wood houses with lots of poorly utilized space, ferns, etc. One funny note: Jane Curtain's character makes numerous references to prostitution (to the gas station attendant, to the gals at the restaurant, and to Jack--the copy played by Dabney Coleman).