Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Kathleen Turner's performance in the title role is the primary selling point of 1986's Peggy Sue Got Married, a somewhat charming comic fantasy that I have to constantly remind myself was actually directed by Francis Ford Coppola.Turner plays Peggy Sue Bodell, a divorced mother of a daughter (Helen Hunt) who goes to her high school reunion and shortly after being crowned reunion queen, faints, bumps her head, and when she wakes up, Peggy Sue is back in her senior year in high school.Unlike similar time-travel stories like the Back to the Future trilogy, instead of making sure the past happens the way it supposed to be, Peggy Sue decides to run with this opportunity, utilizing what she knows about the future in order to change it, her primary focus being the re- thinking of her relationship with her ex, Charlie Bodell (Nicolas Cage), which began in high school but Peggy Sue finds getting people behind her knowledge of the future is a lot more difficult than she imagined.The film is entertaining for the most part and provides some light laughs, but the whole thing just has an emptiness to it that doesn't sustain the length of the film. The screenplay is very talky and makes the lead character come off as kind of a smart-ass, which is a real detriment to the proceedings. We're supposed to be behind Peggy Sue but the screenplay is fighting her all the way.Kathleen Turner works hard in the title role and actually received her only Oscar nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress, though I think she has definitely done better work. Nicolas Cage turns in one of his worst performances as Charlie Bodell, using a high squeaky voice that just grates on the nerves. I don't know why Uncle Francis allowed him to get away with this. The rest of the cast is solid though, especially Don Murray and Barbara Harris as Peggy's parents and Barry Miller as Richard Novick, the school nerd who actually believes what Peggy Sue is trying to sell. Future stars Jim Carrey and Joan Allen can be spotted in small supporting roles and that's future Oscar-nominated director Sofia Coppola, the director's daughter, playing Peggy Sue's little sister.The film provides some entertainment value, but the whole thing just seems pointless because Peggy Sue's journey doesn't really change anything.

Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) is a middle age woman getting divorced from her husband Charlie Bodell (Nicolas Cage) who has a young girlfriend. They were high school sweethearts, but now she's going to the 25 year high school reunion with only her daughter Beth. She has regrets. Despite promising not to, Charlie shows up at the reunion. Peggy Sue gets selected as Reunion Queen. She faints and wakes up back in her high school days. She sees her schoolmates with new eyes, and change things for the better.The other casts include Catherine Hicks, Joan Allen, and Jim Carrey. It's an enjoyable movie from director Francis Ford Coppola. Nicolas Cage is doing a crazy wacky voice. It's also a little weird to see some of these older actors in their 30s playing teenagers. I think it's OK for Peggy Sue to be older because I see that she's mentally in her 30s. The rest really should be much closer to being teenagers. This movie is very charming with a couple of really nice laughs.

A sweet, little time travel comedy/romance. Kathleen Turner plays a woman attending her 25th high school reunion. She's embarrassed at just having divorced her high school sweetheart (Nicolas Cage), but she goes through with it anyway. While at the reunion, she faints and awakes in 1961, just before she turned 18. She has fun revisiting the time period, and decides to take things a different way, knowing that her relationship with Cage is due to fail. This film is messy as Hell. The script feels sloppy and the performances are all over the place. Nicolas Cage is at his most Nicolas Cagey - if you think he only got weird lately, well, he didn't. Turner really isn't very good at all (somehow she got an Oscar nomination - I don't get it). Everyone else is basically fine, but when your two lead performances are this bad, you can't expect the final results to be that good. Thankfully, the movie has a sweetness to it that's often endearing, even when it's not being particularly good. There are some very funny moments, too. Nicolas Cage talking about his "whang" (there's no "h" in that word, Nic) has to be one of the funniest lines I've ever heard.

Every blockbuster has its inferior clones. Peggy Sue Got Married follows the line of 1985's massively successful Back to the Future, with its protagonist travelling back in time a few decades to a world of rock 'n' rollers and high school dances. The similarities end here though, as Peggy Sue swaps Back to the Future's action comedy basis for a sweet romantic fairytale.Kathleen Turner stars as the titular heroine reliving her own youth. She gives a strong dramatic performance, never faltering in her conviction. She emphasises overwhelming emotion of seeing her past brought to life over a sense of surprise, and the character is all the stronger for it. The only trouble is, being in her early thirties she no longer had the appearance of a teenager, but then nor does she quite come across as the knowledgeable older woman. Nicholas Cage by contrast chooses to ham it up with a silly cartoon voice, although funnily enough he does capture the essence of a dopey teenager, albeit in a daft caricature. He's also quite convincing when aged up for the 1980s scenes. Towards the end there are some lovely cameos by veteran performers Leon Ames, Margaret Sullivan and John Carradine. Ames and Sullivan are just wonderfully steady and relaxed, with Ames managing to give eye-catching presence without actually doing much. Carradine is on screen for just a few seconds but he is really memorable with that old familiar voice of his.The director is Francis Ford Coppola. Although his post-70s projects have tended to be disappointing he still has talent as a moviemaker, with the elaborate yet subtle visual compositions that are his forte. The early scenes at the school reunion look fairly random, but notice how Coppola is carefully drawing our attention to various figures who will reappear in 1960, even relatively minor ones like the one played (then-unknown) Jim Carrey. A good example of Coppola's cunning arrangements comes after Nicholas Cage comes off stage after his performance at the party. The camera is behind Kathleen Turner's back, and we back away with her as Cage advances, moving their half of the screen round beside a pillar. The shot looks very natural and unforced, but it's subtly manipulating us and making us share in Turner's slight sense of revulsion.The problem with Peggy Sue Got Married, as with most of Coppola's 1980s output, does not lie in his direction or the efforts of his cast, but in a substandard screenplay. A major fault is that no explanation is given for Turner's time travel jump. Granted, a story like this doesn't need a science answer like in Back to the Future, but even something as light-hearted as a fairy godmother would have sufficed to give things a bit of sense, and would have been a whole lot better than that corny speech about time being a burrito that you fill with memories. The basic idea of the movie is a cute one, and it's not without its emotional tugs (greatly enhanced by a tender musical score), but the story lacks the cohesion and the characters lack the depth to make it a real tearjerker. Peggy Sue Got Married may be only an indirect reworking of Back to the Future, and yet it is as mediocre and dissatisfying as any cheap rip-off.