The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)

hyped garbage

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

BERLIN 66 Reviews by Alex. Panorama. image1.jpeg "The Fabulous Baker Boys" 1989, by first time director Steve Kloves who later made the Harry Potter films. Seen as part of a retrospective of the films of famed Berlin born DOP, Michael Ballhaus, Now 82, who gets a Silver Bear this year for his life's work as a dependable Hollywood cinematographer who worked with many top directors. This however isn't one of the.Film features the real life brothers Beau and Jeff Bridges as two fictional Brothers, Frank and Jack Baker, who are not particularly fabulous but play dual back-to-back jazzy piano gigs at cheap night spots in Seattle. Whe the jobs get slim they decide that they need a female singer to liven up their fading act. After many hopeless auditions guess who turns up -- an incredibly scruffed down Michelle Pfeiffer who happens to have a knockout voice like a white Billie Holiday and a very come hither stage presentation. Her dynamic style injects new life into the Baker Boys act with a highlight reached when she drapes herself all over Jeff's grand piano as if copulating with the instrument during a sensational singing number -- "Making Whoopee" -- the memorable high point of a fundamentally forgettable picture.Unfortunately, for the rest of the film, although she has become pianist Jeff Bridges' lover and there are extended groping and snuggling scenes between them -- there is, oddly enough, no screen Chemistry between them -- zilch -- and the film dies a slow death from there. Whether it was the direction or some kind of real disattraction is hard to say, but despite the fact that both Jeff and Michele are at the height of their early screen attractiveness what one sees on screen is sheer mechanical sham. One device overly used in the Film is Jeff constantly with a lit cigarette in his mouth as if he were supposed to be Bogart in Casablanca or Gainsbourg in Paris. It just doesn't fit his look or personality and everything else in the picture including Pfeiffer's overdone raggedness is out of kilter. Even the Ballhaus cinematography is nothing to write home about. The brothers end up hassling each other heavily for no good dramatic reason and in the end Bridges rejects Pfeiffer, or was it the other way around? Anyway, she walks off into driftlessness as the picture finally ends. I normally like Bridges movies but this was a surprising disappointment from every angle considering the promising cast. One down and many more to go in a packed festival week.

Realistic and honest, this film deserves much more recognition.Film making and music stands out in quality. But above all, the screenplay is superb and effective. The film may seem a typical dramatic real-life story of any of us, if it were not for the fact that in the film, the context is seen from outside, and in life we see it from the inside, from a limited view.The lives of three very different people are joined together, each of them with their own personal problems, in which Jeff Bridges portrays a man disgusted with his life, and he is carried away by a passive attitude. When a ray of light suddenly appears in his life (Michelle Pfeiffer), he keeps standing on his ground. He also has problems with his brother, who is opposed to him in every possible way.The movie presents this situations and characters with an objective view, since no one seems to be portrayed as good or bad. 8,5/10

Beau and Jeff Bridges, the sons of Lloyd Bridges really developed their careers apart from each other. Neither piggybacked on the other's success and while their father's name might have opened a door or two, Beau and Jeff never piggybacked on him either.When they did a joint project each had a well respected career. The Fabulous Baker Boys is about a pair of musician brothers who have a double piano act, something like Ohman&Arden from the Thirties or Jose and Ampara Iturbi, brother and sister in a more classical vein. But they're not anything as successful as the examples I mentioned. They eke out an existence in the clubs in Seattle trying to scratch a living at what they love.Beau takes a lot of guff to keep them employed as he's married with children and Jeff puts up with nothing. To liven up the act they decide a sexy girl singer is what they need and after some dismal candidates they find Michelle Pheiffer. But Michelle dishes out her own brand of guff and she causes The Fabulous Baker Boys to reexamine themselves and their lives.Pheiffer got a Best Actress nomination one of four categories of Oscar nominations the film received. She dominates the film when she's on and not through sheer beauty. It was a well deserved performance, I love the scenes when she cuts Jeff Bridges down to size. She isn't easy on Beau either.Lots of the kind of music I like, vocal and instrumental, is found in The Fabulous Baker Boys. That's a guarantee right there I would enjoy the film.It's only too bad that Beau and Jeff could not work their father into this one.

The late Mr Tedesco was the doyen of West Coast session musicians for many years,spending much of his life playing fairly mundane if sometimes technically demanding music for TV shows,movies,jingles,pop records etc.then leading his own jazz group in small L.A.clubs when he was off the clock.In much the same way,Jack Baker(Mr J.Bridges) endures rather than enjoys his day job as one half of a piano duo with his brother Frank(Mr Beau Bridges)and is able to satisfy the more creative side of his nature by playing jazz in his spare time. After 15 years,the act is getting stale and the brothers hire a singer (Miss M.Pfeiffer) to give it some much needed pizazz. Cue a renewed surge of creative energy from Jack and Miss Pfeiffer's outspoken opinions causing friction between the brothers. "The Fabulous Baker Boys" is perhaps a little too incessantly downbeat to succeed in the mainstream but is an accurate picture of life at the less glamorous end of the music business. The brothers' rather mundane act is immediately transformed by the addition of Miss Pfeiffer who is going places,but will they be able to keep up? There are outstanding performances by all three headliners,some wonderful music that made me want to get out my old George Shearing albums. The whole film is made with painstaking care,perfectly cast and is clearly a labour of love. If you like grown - up music,movies that take time to develop characters,consummate acting and the whole package faultlessly produced look no further.