ARTS-ENTERTAINMENT – 5.

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Feb 24 1998 (IPS) - In the United States, memories are prone to dim fast, with such recent pieces of history as the savings and loans crisis, the rise of “revolutionary” Republican leadership in Congress and numerous scandals of the past 10 years already fading into obscurity.

Recollections of other decades are similarly dim. Judging from recent movies and TV shows set in the 1970s, viewers remember the hair styles, strange clothing fads and disco music of the time, but they have forgotten anything else about the unremarkable period of Gerald Ford’s presidency from 1974-76.

It is no surpise then that the past year has found several movies indulging in a fond nostalgia for the mid-1980s, a period that is just one decade old.

The movie ‘The Wedding Singer’, written by Tom Herlihy and directed by Frank Coraci that opened nationwide last week has attracted large audiences. Its backers are so confident of the revivalist mood that the film is advertised as “a story that took place before the Internet, cellular phones or rollerblades!”

The plot nominally features the romance between Robbie (Adam Sandler), a young romantic who sings at weddings and other ceremonies, and Julia (Drew Barrymore), a caterer at many of the same functions. Much of its comedy satems from the mood of instant nostalgia.

In fact, ‘The Wedding Singer’ pays very little attention to the real issues of the 1980s, opting instead to focus on the images of the decade gleaned largely from TV and pop music. Characters dress like Boy George and Madonna, drive cars like the DeLorean (which was a flop among car-buyers at the time) – and villains identify themselves by taking up the quintessential job of the ‘Greed Decade’, selling high-yield ‘junk’ bonds.

Such an overload of reference to the ’80’s – as in two 1997 films, ‘Grosse Point Blank’ and ‘Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion’ – are designed to contrast the presumed innocence of the previous decade with the more sceptical 1990s.

When Robbie tells a former girlfriend to take off his Van Halen shirt “before you jinx the group and they break up,” the joke lies in knowing that, in fact, his beloved rock stars will part ways before the decade ends. Most of the other characters similarly embrace now-dated fads with an enthusiasm that seems naive, as when one person shows up at a party wearing a single glove, in homage to Michael Jackson.

Beneath the surface of such jokes is a story as ingenuous as any of the fads the film’s mock-nostalgic attitude skewers. Robbie, heartbroken after being abandoned at the altar, helps Julia plan her own wedding to an unfaithful lout, even though he obviously is falling in love with her.

As far as plots go, it’s pretty thin stuff, padded by (of course) a soundtrack of songs from the 1980s, and Sandler’s own, vaguely deranged musical efforts. The wittiest moments actually stem from Sandler’s display of post-breakup misery by singing songs like ‘Love Stinks’ with gusto while almost weeping through a pathetic rendition of Madonna’s ‘Holiday’.

Sandler, a former comedian on the television show ‘Saturday Night Live’, also revisits his old routine of composing intentionally bad songs, including one self-pitying love song which combines sweet expressions of longing with wails of “Put a bullet through my head!”

As with much of the 1980s itself, a little of ‘The Wedding Singer’ goes a long way, and by the time ’80’s icon Billy Idol appears to assist the hero, the nostalgic mood has worn off.

Still, after a year in which the events and styles of the 1970s were captured in films as diverse as Ang Lee’s ‘The Ice Storm’ and Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Boogie Nights’, the filmmakers behind ‘The Wedding Singer’ may have discerned the next big trend.

The only questions are: Can nostalgia for the early 1990s be far behind – and will President Bill Clinton be able to capitalise on fond memories of the ‘innocence’ of his earlier years?