The Accidental Tourist

source: The Accidental Tourist

Trailer—The Accidental Tourist

The Accidental Tourist

Macon Leary (William Hurt) is a travel writer with a book called Accidental Tourist. It teaches businessmen to travel with the least inconvenience and not connecting. It's the same as his life especially after the death of his son. His wife Sarah (Kathleen Turner) can't take it and leaves him. He is pursued by Muriel Pritchett (Geena Davis) from the animal hospital. After injuring himself, he moves back in with his siblings Rose Leary (Amy Wright), Porter Leary (David Ogden Stiers) and Charles Leary (Ed Begley Jr). It's quirky without big laughs. Geena Davis is absolutely winning which actually causes a problem for me. I can't imagine any red-blooded guy would resist her. There should be a line forming around the block of men throwing themselves at her. For some reason, I love the undercooked turkey scene. I find it funny and poignant that Julian insists on eating the turkey.

Movie about a man (William Hurt) dealing with the death of his son. His wife (Kathleen Turner) abandons him and he's all alone. He meets a wonderful woman (Geena Davis) but is she enough to help him? It looks fantastic (superb direction) and great acting by all (Geena Davis won an Oscar)...but I was bored by this movie. It only scratches the surface of Hurt's character...I never once got a clear feeling of what was inside. Turner is given VERY short shrift in this movie too--there are NO insights to her. Ditto with Davis--but she's having so much fun with the role it kind of rubs off. I suppose the script was OK but I seriously had trouble staying awake! The movie plods on endlessly with pointless, mind-numbing dialogue. A clear point of view might have helped here! Also, when it came out, a lot of my friends saw it and said the same thing--it was boring. It's only known for Davis winning the Oscar. I'm giving it a 5 for the acting and direction--but that's it.

Once again, I found a movie I really enjoyed the first time I saw it, and then years later lost interest during the middle of the second viewing and never finished it. On that second look, frankly, I just found it boring. The only appealing character in the film is the one played by Geena Davis, who plays a "kinky" person, which made her interesting to watch. I didn't like the fact Kathleen Turner's character left her husband for selfish reasons, which seems to be okay, according to the script. ("You didn't give ME enough support when our kid was killed, so I am leaving.") Wow, another plug for making marriage into a joke.

Hurt expresses more with the slightest movement on his face than most actors do with pages of dialogue. An achingly beautiful portrait of a man trapped within himself, struggling at once to stay in and get out

A fairly well done human drama about relationships, which manages to tackle the subject matter without becoming a romance, this is a superb film of its sort. The screenplay is excellently written, full of witty humour and biting satire, the film editing is admirable and the performances are excellent. Geena Davis won an Oscar for her role, but it is in fact William Hurt who stands out the most in the cast, in an unflinching but somehow amazingly poignant role. On the down side, the film is slow, a bit too meandering, and the final quarter is not really all that interesting, but overall it is an involving, very worthwhile watch.