Funny Farm (1988)

Directed by George Roy Hill. Starring Chevy Chase, Madolyn Smith, Kevin O’Morrison, Joseph Maher, Mike Starr, Glenn Plummer, Alice Drummond, William Newman, Brad Sullivan, William Duell, Jack Gilpin, Caris Corfman, Kevin Conway. [PG]

There’s a little Norman Rockwell and Preston Sturges in this relaxed comedy where sportswriter Chase moves out to the country with wife Smith for a gentle change of pace and so he can focus on writing a novel, but the two learn that rural living ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Chase’s funniest film since Caddyshack, and a nice change of pace from the detached smart aleck roles he usually played (though there’s a shade or two of Clark Griswold in there); he and Smith achieve a nice lived-in chemistry, and the script wisely allows them both to have pronounced personalities and earn laughs on their own. Pokes fun at quaint small town life, but Jeffrey Boam’s script surprisingly avoids a lot of the easy stereotypes and instead makes the characters more distinctly quirky (a reckless mailman who drinks on his route, a sheriff who has to travel by taxi until he finally passes his driving test, etc.). Writers will sympathize with (and squirm during) the scene where Chase hands his wife the first few chapters of his book and hovers anxiously while watching her read it; Smith’s distressed reaction to the work-in-progress earns one of the biggest laughs. Splendidly photographed by Miroslav Ondrícek. Final film that Hill directed.

81/100