Leaving Normal (1992)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

i must have seen a different film!!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Marianne (Meg Tilly) had many last names and a roaming mother. She eagerly arrives at Normal, Wyoming as the wife to Curtis Johnson. She leaves after he hits her. She's tired of her nomadic life. Darly Peters (Christine Lahti) is a waitress, former stripper, and part Eskimo who is going to Alaska to claim a home that her ex-husband had supposedly built. She gives Marianne a ride to Marianne's conservative sister Emily Singer in Portland. Marianne decides to run off with Darly to Alaska. After their car gets trashed, they hitchhike with truckers Harrison Rainey and Leon (Maury Chaykin). They run off on the guys and find waitress 66.It's a sort of Thelma and Louise without explosions, Brad Pitt, or police chases. Meg Tilly does her damaged character and Lahti does her sassy brash character. They are a good duo. The story is a bit rambling. Once they get to Alaska, the story loses its kinetic drive.

Before the advent of the Lifetime or Women's Entertainment networks, wherein made-for-cable movies regularly turn up about female bonding amidst great inner turmoil, something slight like "Leaving Normal" actually made a run in theaters; today, I doubt that would happen. Abused wife Meg Tilly hitches up with world-weary Christine Lahti for adventures on the road. It's a feminist comedy-drama with a few thoughtful things to say, but too much melodramatic nonsense and curious attempts at broad humor which do not work at all. Edward Zwick directed, and he gets this tale off to a shaky start (and Lahti, in particular, seems to struggle to find her character). It improves as it goes along, but not enough to make it a memorable trip. ** from ****

I have often been surprised "Leaving Normal" does not have a "cult following." Often compared to "Thelma and Louise," it may begin along similar lines, but it's ultimate destination is quite different. It is not a film about women's issues, but _human_ issues, more specifically, how we get to happiness, or how it gets to us. It addresses those issues unforgettably.[some spoilers]Marianne Johnson has been running to what she thinks are solutions, but which turn out to be bigger problems. Now in a marriage with an abusive husband in Normal, Wyoming, she runs again, not toward a new solution, but to a bus bench, where she meets Darly, a barmaid who is leaving to claim property in Alaska.They head off together, and inspired by Marianne's disastrous choices, Darly makes Marianne take a vow to let their path be totally dictated by chance. Along the way, there are successes and more disasters, as well as revelations about Darly's past that reveal she, too, has chosen to run, with disastrous consequences.They arrive in Palmer Valley, Alaska to far less than what Darly expected but which Marianne curiously feels she wants to live with because "it chose me." Darly, however, despite her talk of letting things just happen, must run away again. By throwing a dart at a map in a local bar, Darly picks a new place to run to, ironically named "Paradise." In the end, though, Darly's actions to get her the money to get her to Paradise only end up forcing her to confront what running away before did to her life.The film is a fable, but one that teaches its lessons about life and the choices we make transparently. Often hysterically funny, it can also be deeply moving and intensely disturbing. Nonetheless, it generates forgiveness and understanding for even the most reprehensible characters in it, ultimately making us believe happy endings can happen, it's just that they may not be the happy endings we were looking for.Credit the remarkable performances of just about the entire cast, but especially Christine Lahti as Darly and Meg Tilly and Marianne, as well as the perfect script by Ed Solomon (who also has a bit part as the man who rejects 66 at the dance club).

The title, "Leaving Normal", is clever because it refers both to physically leaving the fictitious town of Normal, WY, but more significantly, leaving the "normal" state of existence. Christine Lahti is the former dancer and waitress who never progresses beyond that, and Meg Tilley is the abused housewife who has made a series of disastrous choices in her life. As Lahti decides to do something different, and heads to Alaska to re-claim her old, unfinished homestead, she gives Tilley a ride.They are unlikely road buddies, like Thelma and Louise were. Lahti is funny, daring, scheming (gets $100 from truck driver then slips out the window of the ladies room) and world-wise, while Tilley is just the opposite and insecure with her abilities. Ultimately they bring out the better persons residing in each.Along the way their car breaks down, they get a ride with another lady pulling a trailer, then they are given her car and trailer when a wealthy bumpkin asks her to stay and marry him. They work their way to Alaska and look up the property, where the unfinished shell of a house still stands, weather-beaten. Through a lot of posturing, eventually they both decide to stay, we see the house being completed in a time-lapse series of shots. Lahti decides to try and find her daughter that she abandoned in the local hospital 18 years earlier.Both act well, but Tilley is a joy to watch. Her portrayal of the half-ditzy, insecure woman is just perfect. Makes me wonder, whatever happened to Meg Tilley? She hasn't made a theatrical release movie since 1994. Unlike Thelma and Louise, where they drive off Dead Horse Point in Utah at the end, the lives of these two women literally begin as this movie ends. Seen on the "Women's Entertainment" channel, a really good movie, doesn't always take itself too seriously, and has an uplifting message. We are left to wonder if Lahti ever finds her daughter, whether Tilley's trucker friend ever shows up again. Maybe they considered a sequel, but the film wasn't popular to warrant that.