Review: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

       After watching this movie and some careful deliberation, I came to the conclusion that Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is a grown-up version of The Breakfast Club. This may seem like an easy comparison because both films were directed by John Hughes, but there is more than a shared director that binds these two films together. On the surface, the films share a similar concept. A group of very different people forced together by circumstances. caused by both their own doing as well as an outside authority, and through their time together they learn valuable life lessons from each other. The group in Automobiles is only two people while there are five main characters in Breakfast Club, but the premise is roughly the same. These films are also similar because they are both considered 80s classics, and while both are considered comedies, the laughs are relatively sparse and separated by moments of melancholy and introspection. If you liked The Breakfast Club, and are looking for a similar movie now that you're out of your awkward, angsty teenage years, check out Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

       Steve Martin plays Neal Page, a successful ad man on a business trip in New York, is going home to Chicago for Thanksgiving. But not to worry, he has two days to get home and a plane ticket, what could go wrong? It turns out a lot can go very, very wrong. Along his journey he encounters Del Griffith (John Candy), a shower curtain ring salesman. First, Griffith steals Page's taxi to the airport, and then they are seated next to each other on the plane. Griffith is a loud, boorish man who tells long stories with no apparent point or punchline. He drives the fastidious Page up the wall, but when a snowstorm diverts their flight to Wichita, they end up sharing the last available hotel room, and bed, in town. The two of them, through fate or choice, stick together all the way to Chicago, encountering every ridiculous obstacle together. As the title of the film suggests, they travel by planes, trains, and automobiles, and each mode of transportation brings about a different absurd problem, at one point they are pulled over for speeding and the cop tells them they can no longer continue in their vehicle because not only is it damaged from an earlier wreck, but also because it was severely burnt in a fire and is pretty much just a shell of a car. The two of them learn from each other and the ending is heartwarming, just in time for the holidays.

       As I said earlier, while this movie is a comedy, the laughs a fairly sparse. It's a screwball comedy with a lot of slapstick humor, but these moments are separated by a large number of melancholy scenes where the characters feel bad for being away from their families for so long. Steve Martin plays against type, instead of playing his usual wacky kind of characters, he plays the straight man to Candy's buffoon. Candy also does a good job because even though he's often played as the antagonist, we never get the sense that Del Griffith is being malicious, he always means well, and when Page attacks him for his annoying ways, Del looks more hurt than offended. I was also perplexed by the soundtrack of this movie, which mixes standard 80s electronica with hip-hop record scratches, which seemed like an odd choice. The ending of the film is a little cloying, but I'll forgive it because it's the holidays. There aren't many Thanksgiving movies, but this one sets the bar pretty high.