# Home Fries (1998)

### reviewed by
Mark R. Leeper

                         HOME FRIES (United States)
             A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
               from the Toronto Internation Film Festival

CAPSULE: Black comedy set in part in and around a burger restaurant that serves French fries not Home Fries. So the title doesn't really work and neither does the film. Drew Barrymore and Catherine O'Hara star. Rating: 5 (0 to 10), high 0 (-4 to +4) Minor spoilers in this review.

- Dean Parisot directs a screenplay by Vince Gilligan. - Sally Jackson (Drew Barrymore) does not know what will become of her. She will soon be having the baby and the father Henry is telling her he will soon be leaving his wife, but he clearly has little intention of doing so. Then when driving home one night he turns up a back road and is attacked by an army battle helicopter. The surprise kills him. The helicopter it turns out was operated by his two stepsons angry about Henry's philandering. But due to radio interference, somebody at the local Burger-matic overheard the attack and may or may not have understood what they were hearing. One of the stepsons (Luke Wilson) gets a job at Burger- matic to find out what people know. - Sally's father holds whole restaurant hostage. He is overpowered, but nothing ever comes of it. He is not punished. - Catherine O'Hara manipulative character makes suggestion that her children kill people and then claims to have been misinterpreted. - Luke Wilson perpetually has a pained facial expression that looks like someone is stepping on his toe. Drew Barrymore is too much like a baby doll. There just is no chemistry between them. - Exaggerated and overdone chase scene. - Plot has not much to do with Home Fries, or even the burger restaurant. - A black comedy needs funny ideas. This one seems strained. The timing was off or something else intangible, but the film just did not work.

                                            Mark R. Leeper
                                            mleeper@lucent.com
                                            Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper

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