Classic Review: The Facts of Life

I had no idea this movie was even in existence! Bob Hope & Lucille Ball? In a movie together? Sign my ass up! LOL I found this on Netflix after a night of watching ehh-worthy movies and realized I couldn't pass it up.

This cute movie stars Bob Hope & Lucille Ball as two middle-aged, married vacationers who fall in love and find themselves at a crossroads of what to do. The movie begins with a Pasadena housewife, Kitty, sitting in an airport terminal thinking about how she ended up in said terminal with the husband, Larry, of her dear friend. Kitty and Larry are part of a group of six (them and their respective spouses and another couple) who usually vacation together and the beginning of the movie finds them obviously at odds with each other, then complaining to their respective spouses about an upcoming trip the six intend to take. She calls him Laughing Boy; he complains about her big mouth (she'd interrupted all of his jokes earlier in the night) and they both share their lack of desire to vacation with the other.

The movie then takes a turn as mishaps begin to occur. Larry's youngest comes down with a fever, preventing his wife from leaving with him, followed by Kitty's husband being delayed in order to receive a guest. Kitty & Larry end up sharing seats on the plane and small talk goes as expected, badly. The other couple, Doc and Connie, accompany Kitty & Larry but come down with food poisoning their first night in Acapulco, forcing Kitty & Larry to spend the first bit of the trip together. After catching a huge fish together, Kitty kisses Larry in her excitement and that's where the movie really heats up. Their spouses end up not being able to join them at all, and Doc & Connie remain holed up in their room with what they call "the bug." During the next 6 days of the trip, the two fall madly in love, but ultimately return to their rightful homes and agree to never speak of the experience again.

After returning home, they each realize that their respective families completely ignore their existence. Larry's family couldn't care less about his trip or anything he did while he was there; his sons ignore him to ask for things and don't appreciate the gift he brought them back, and his wife is only concerned with having him mediate their requests and 'second' everything she says. Kitty's husband is more engrossed in his newspaper and completely ignores Kitty; in her frustration she tells her husband the truth, that she had a passionate affair with Larry while in Acapulco but he doesn't hear a word. This is confirmed when he asks her the very questions she had already answered, which he would have heard had he been listening. It would be easier for the two to forget about their island tryst, if they didn't run in the same circles and were often thrown in the same room by default.

After returning home

I don't want to ruin the other half of the movie but I loved it and thought it was cute. Dry comedy, with a lot of tongue-in-cheek comments and innuendos; my favorite is about halfway through the movie right after Kitty and Larry arrange a secret meeting over the telephone while Larry is at work. These two played well off each other in every encounter, from their shared dislike of the other at the beginning to their awkwardness to being stuck with each other, to their mutual love for each other and desire to be together. It was believable, even if small portions may have been a little predictable. I'm willing to bet though that it was only predictable because I've seen so many rom-coms that follow more or less the same plot; aside from that I really enjoyed the energy and tension between the characters. I realized that their individual conundrums are often the fear of many who get married; that once life has become ho-hum they'll fade into the background and be completely ignored, by both their children and their spouse. I think the movie did a good job of exploring that and keeping it realistic to both marriage and the times they were in; many husbands did hide behind their newspapers, patronizing and 'mmhmm'ing' themselves to death when their wives would speak. And on the other side of the fence, many wives would need their husband to put their foot down on what she told the kids, reserving Dad's importance for 'manly things' with the boys, punishment and bringing home the bacon. Things haven't changed much, except Dad doesn't read the newspaper these days and kids have their cell phones at the table for breakfast. Anyway, depending on how you view rom-coms like this, I'm sure you can predict the ending or at least see it coming when the plot begins to set itself up but either way I think you'll like it. It's a cute, light-hearted film that still manages to be realistic and shows you the flip side of that wonderful fantasy world some of us create for ourselves. If you don't have anything to do with your afternoon this weekend, I suggest you check this flick out; its on Netflix's Instant Queue.

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