Review of Raising Arizona (1987) by Amheretojudge — 02 Sep 2019

I don't get the mixture of these many genres at all, I feel unsatisfied and left out from a whole lot of something.

Raising Arizona Coen Brothers' joke is not something I get. I like the humor they have. I get the joke. But it cannot justI don't get the mixture of these many genres at all, I feel unsatisfied and left out from a whole lot of something.

Raising Arizona.

Coen Brothers' joke is not something I get. I like the humor they have. I get the joke. But it cannot just be the joke. At the end of the day, it is a film. And it is not particularly the joke that I have an issue with, but it is framed that way. I cannot help but blame that at all. The writer Joel and Ethan Coen sat down to write a classic. That was in their mind. It is frankly clear. Take the set pieces, for instance, that they have created, going out of their way, for either a laugh or an awe. The prologue that eerily resembles with Pixar's Up and also has an equally intimate epilogue to finish the circle beautifully.

But it is the troubling journey that's not captivating as we're promised to. No matter how artistically they are flexing their muscles. The stops are the real issues. The narrative is put on hold when the joke is told and we are told to laugh separately before they start resuming, running, chasing and bickering. Speaking of which, the major laughs are drawn from the reaction that the lead couple offers us after a shocking information is revealed.

Not for us, of course, but for them. Holly Hunter who cries, nay snobs, on demand is the one driving the emotional car. She is doing most of the heavy lifting when it comes to express the views or the state of the couple. Nicolas Cage on the other hand is playing the macho con artist who suppresses his way out of life and walks it off calling it a bad day and bad luck. And blending these two in one room in Raising Arizona, spirals a pretty standard married life oozing the issues that we've all known, experienced and agreed or disagreed to.