Review of Something Wild (1986) by Luc L — 07 Nov 2010

In Something Wild, a businessman (Jeff Daniels) meets an impulsive, free-spirited girl (Melanie Griffith) outside a cafe, and she whisks him off on an adventure, obliterating most of his inhibitions on the way. So far, so obvious, apart from two things: the businessman isn't completely uptight and occasionally rebels in his own way even before he meets the girl, and towards the end things take a turn for the thriller-esque, completely wrenching Something Wild out of the foggy Lost In Translation world it otherwise occupied.

It's not exactly plot-driven. You'll get the feeling early on that these two characters will mostly just ramble around, learning little things about each other en route, and you'll be right. But the story's general looseness can be quite exciting, in a could-go-anywhere sort of way, especially when it eventually does actually go somewhere, thanks to Ray Liotta in typically scary form. The film's final act is the best one: call me unreasonable, but I just didn't get much out of the free-spirit-helps-uptight-guy-to-live-a-better-life story. It's been done to death.

Melanie Griffith gets most of the film's praise as Lulu, but it's really a straightforward Impulsive Mystery Girl character with little extra flair. Jeff Daniels is a bit more interesting as Charlie, what with his slightly-impulsive nature existing before Lulu shows up, but that's a double-edged sword: it makes his eventual transformation more believable, but it also makes it less momentous or important. Ray Liotta is surprisingly good in the pat role of Crazy Ex Husband, particularly in the final scene.

Even with the surprisingly eventful last act, you can still pretty much guess where it's all going from the first five minutes. The whole thing has dated noticeably - for there's no worse decade to make a movie in than the '80s. But Something Wild rattles along entertainingly enough. It tries to escape the clutches of Meet Cute, and just about succeeds, although it's still not the sort of thing I'd make a fuss to see again. As with any story about going away and finding yourself, it probably means more to the participants than it will to the audience.