Excess Baggage
Going into Excess Baggage, I didn't quite know what to expect. I knew Alicia Silverstone was in it, and I knew that it was about a kidnapping gone awry. But the trailers are so misleading that one might think Excess Baggage was a comedy in the same realm as Ruthless People. Well, if you do go in expecting this, you might be disappointed, or you may be like me and find yourself quite entertained by the humorous mishaps of Silverstone and Del Toro. Baggage is a very different type of film which somehow barely manages to maintain the threads holding it together. If it wasn't for Del Toro and the rest of the cast, Excess Baggage could have just been another lost cause amongst the August releases.
Excess Baggage is the first film from Alicia Silverstone's new production company, First Kiss Productions. Surprisingly enough, the movie is fun to watch and originally done. Unfortunately, there are a few problems which pop up along the run of the film, especially the script, which could have used some major work. The beginning of Excess Baggage reminded me so much of Clueless, Silverstone's best film, that I wondered if Silverstone was trying to capitalize on the success of that much more entertaining film. So much is similar between her two characters in these films that you begin to think that this is the only role she could ever play. After seeing films like Batman & Robin, this seems like a major possibility. Not that there is anything wrong with that, as I could watch numerous Clueless sequels if as well written as that first one. But I fear that if our poor Alicia doesn't get an original role soon, she will be lost amongst the quickly forgotten stars who could never get past their childhood persona.
Excess Baggage does have a lot going for it, though, namely the cast. The film begins very quickly as a spoiled daughter, Emily Hope (Silverstone), kidnaps herself. The reason is established through a monologue given by Hope, and we learn that she is doing this because her father doesn't pay enough attention to her. Alexander Hope (Jack Thompson) is the ignorant father, but he shows glimpses of compassion when his daughter is kidnapped. She orders her father to throw one million dollars onto a barge floating down the river, and then ties herself up and locks herself in the trunk of her green BMW. This is all rather interesting, and it gets even more intriguing when Vincent Roche (Benicio Del Toro), an advanced, but slow-witted car thief, steals the car Hope is locked in. To his (and her) surprise, he discovers her after he reaches his final destination: a warehouse filled with stolen cars.
This pretty much sets up the entire film for a rush of misunderstandings and coincidental occurances. Still, for some reason I expected these events to be funnier than what they were. Some were quite funny, such as some of the scenes between Del Toro and Silverstone, and some are very dull (scenes of the father all fit in this category). The first half hour of Excess Baggage are entertaining and original, which usually can foreshadow the final half hour as being drop-dead boring. This film doesn't reach that point, thankfully, but cautiously and unintentionally remains on the border. One way could have made the film succeed even moreso, and the other could have caused the film to drop in the ratings. It's a shame that the three or four writers weren't able to come up with some original ideas towards the end of the film. They even tried to create suspense by attempting to make us guess as to what Silverstone's character was going to do. It was actually more insulting than anything else.
To the writers' credit, however, is the wonderfully funny and cute scenes between Silverstone and Del Toro. I would have loved for Excess Baggage to try something new, and not have the two leads fall in love. This wasn't going to happen, and in fact created some unrealistic chemistry between these two (they fell in love in two days--a Hollywood subplot regular). Whenever they didn't get along, the screen lit up with sharp dialogue and humorous situations. It was a lot more fun (and definitely much more believeable) when they couldn't get along, but this is a Hollywood film. In fact, when I think about it, the first hour of Excess Baggage is so wonderfully fun that the last part seems drained and forced. The scenes between Raymond Perkins (Christopher Walken) and Hope's father are excruciatingly painful to watch, but thanks to Walken's power as an actor, he brings some joy into the scenes. Which brings up another point: for the life of me, I couldn't tell whether Perkins was a good or a bad guy until about twenty minutes before the end. Walken is almost always an evil man in films, and to see him in a good role confused me.
Excess Baggage has one main thing going for it: a talented cast. Silverstone is pretty good as the rich brat, but her character is just a cross between Cher from Clueless and Batgirl. Del Toro (from The Usual Suspects) shines in his role as the caring but slow-minded car thief. He is very entertaining and lights up the screen whenever he appears. Christopher Walken is extremely effective as Silverstone's uncle. It's nice to know he can play a good guy once in a while (even if he looks mean). Jack Thompson gives a believeable and rather mean-spirited performance as the hard-hearted business father. I was just waiting for someone to punch him in the face. Harry Connick, Jr. is good in his underwritten role, but he isn't given very much to do. This is purely Del Toro's film, with Silverstone doing nothing more than she did in Clueless.
Excess Baggage is rated PG-13 for violence, drinking and sex-related dialogue. Director Marco Brambilla uses some nice storytelling techniques, but I only wish he could have held that camera still during some scenes. Composer John Lurie creates a very nice musical score to go along with this film. In fact, I was even distracted during some scenes by the wonderful music. Excess Baggage is far from the comedy and entertainment of Clueless, but with four different writers, you think one of them might be able to come up with something funny. Excess Baggage is cute and light-weight, but don't expect to laugh very often.