Raising Arizona
Women are creatures known to do anything to get what they want. This movie further promotes that belief. When ex-cop Ed (Holly Hunter) marries ex-con H.I. (Nicholas Cage), she wants nothing more than a baby. The two are upset to find they can't conceive. Given H.I.'s criminal background, adoption is out of the question. To most this would mean the end of the story; no kids, buy a couple of dogs, and live happily ever after, right? Not so for this resourceful couple. Ed wants a baby, and H.I. is willing to do anything it takes to make his wife happy. This sets the stage for hilarity and poignancy.
OK, the premise is a little tough to swallow. An ex-con and an ex-cop conspiring to kidnap a child is a little far fetched, especially for these backwood rednecks. But if you can see past that inconsistent logic, you'll find an extremely eloquent film about some real people who all have their own masks. Roger Ebert criticized the film's dialogue for being "too intelligent" for a couple of Arizona hayseeds, but we've all met the smart loser in our day. Hell, our nation's prisons are full of poet laureates.
Raising Arizona is a remarkable spectacle of overblown characters, sights, sounds and events. Director Joel Coen, and his co-screenwriting brother Ethan, have created a fantastic and hilarious world that's close to the one we live in, but with the brightness turned way, way up. There's little room for subtlety here, and the audience doesn't mind in the least. Memorable scenes include the "birth" of two screaming convicts (one played by John Goodman) who gain freedom from their underground tunnel by pushing their way out and into freedom through the mud created by a downpour.
Both Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter were early in their careers when they made Raising Arizona, and each of them makes a great impact. Cage gives the good-hearted but consistently dazed H.I. an odd credibility. Wacky though he and everything around him may be, he actually seems real and exceedingly likeable. In this movie he plays a character unlike anything he has ever played before (or since). Here he shows us he is capable of great physical comedy. Hunter is even better as the diminutive police officer who falls for the crook. She's at once terse and cop-like uptight, and perpetually ready to spill over with emotion on a moment's notice. She too is delightfully likable.
This film is perfect in the fact that the humor aids the humanity of the characters: "Nathan here needs some Huggies; Ah'll be back directly." It's one of my favorite lines of the movie. Raising Arizona's nearly sacharrine sentimental ending will show you that despite their challenging art-house facade, the Coen brothers have a heart of gold.
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A couple of cold ones will only intensify the hilarity of the problems these two face after stealing a baby and not having the slightest idea of what to do with him next.
Not a romantic flick, but funny and upbeat enough to be a good date flick.
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