# For Richer or Poorer (1997)

### reviewed by
Jamie Peck

    FOR RICHER OR POORER

    RATING: ** (out of ****)

Universal / 1:56 / 1997 / PG-13 (language, sex jokes) Cast: Tim Allen; Kirstie Alley; Jay O. Sanders; Michael Lerner; Wayne Knight; Larry Miller; Miguel A. Nunez; Megan Cavanagh Director: Bryan Spicer Screenplay: Jana Howington; Steve LuKanic

Although "Home Improvement"'s Tim Allen and "Veronica's Closet"'s Kirstie Alley know success on the small screen, their collaborative efforts are marred in translation to the silver one with "For Richer or Poorer." Both stars are in top form here, and they even manage to pull off a few very funny bits before the film exchanges silly spoofing of the Amish culture in for sloppy sentimentality involving love and marriage. Let's put it this way -- there's a reason it's called "For Richer or Poorer" and not "Madcap Mennonite Misadventures."

Allen and Alley play Brad and Caroline Sexton, an obnoxious, wealthy New York couple on the verge of a not-too-amicable divorce around the time of their 10th wedding anniversary. But before they can officially untie the knot, the IRS comes looking for them -- it seems their slimy accountant (Wayne Knight, Newman from "Seinfeld") has stolen $5 million from their accounts and set it up to look like tax fraud. They steal a cab and end up crashing in Intercourse, Pennsylvania (ha, ha) -- Amish country -- where they masquerade as a prominent farm family's cousins from the Midwest (but where'd they get their duds?). What follows is a semi-parody of "Witness," as the Sextons lay low with the Amish and grow accustomed to the hard-working simplicity of their everyday lives.

In a fish-out-of-water comedy, taking the fish out of water around the 40-minute mark isn't a very good idea -- especially when we're not given very many reasons to like either of our protagonists. But Allen and Alley (why is he billed above the title while she's not?) do get away with some great one-liners and nifty sight gags, the best of which are probably worth sticking around for. There's a hilarious dinner sequence where Brad and Caroline invent reasons for the liberal rules of their cluster to appease their inquiring "relatives" (the justification for Brad's clean-shaven face -- "minute lice") as well as a funny running gag involving a 4:45 a.m. wake-up call and what I believe is the very first Amish fashion show ever captured on film.

Basically, "For Richer or Poorer" is okay whenever it lets its incognito couple go for each other's throats, which better explains that sinking feeling that occurs during a needless detour towards schmaltz in its final third. We're asked to swallow that the warm, intimate values of the Amish lifestyle melt Brad and Caroline's hearts and cause them to re-evaluate their relationship, a big, misguided no-no considering what shallow jerks they're depicted as until then. Other inconsistencies and flaws pop up, the cap-off of which is a surprisingly unfunny blooper reel (a la "The Nutty Professor" and the "Grumpy Old Men" movies) that runs during the closing credits. Come on -- such a funny leading man and lady and you're telling me the best outtake you've got is Alley slipping and sliding in pigpen mud?

Still, for such a stinky story, Allen and Alley are constantly engaging; he's put to good use after the respectively poor and even-worse "The Santa Clause" and "Jungle 2 Jungle," while she makes quite an eye-catching comeback after a several-year movie drought (her last big role, I believe, was that of a chain-smoking scientist in 1995's outlandish "Village of the Damned" remake). The real Amish have some sort of rule about not being captured on film, and aside from Allen and Alley, "For Richer or Poorer" and fellow faith-offender "Kingpin" (the spoof of several summers ago which cast Randy Quaid as an Amish bowling protégé) just don't do much to prove that the creed needs a makeover.

© 1997 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit the Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/

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