”Late for Dinner,” the story of two guys who are iced in 1962 and thaw out 29 years later, might better be called ”Willie & Frank`s Tedious Adventure.” Or perhaps ”Willie & Frank`s Banal Adventure.” Or maybe
”Willie & Frank`s Oh So Medicocre Adventure.” I hope you get the point.
Once again we are subjected to the hoary time-travel, fish-out-of-water bits, the difference being that this time the fish come packed solid. Willie Husband (Brian Wimmer of television`s ”China Beach”), an unemployed Santa Fe milkman, and his mentally impaired brother-in-law, Frank Lovegren (Peter Berg), get inadvertently mixed up in an alleged kidnapping and shooting. Fleeing to Pomona, Calif., they meet up with a Dr. Chilblains and his colleague, who decide the strangers are perfect subjects for their life-extension research. The slowly degenerating Frank, they reason, is
”walking death,” while the wounded Willie faces the hangman through no fault of his own. Thus they freeze the two, imploring, ”God forgive us.”
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From this moment on, the same could be asked of the audience.
In 1991, a freak truck accident (you don`t want to know) causes them to melt in the lab. ”Something`s not right here, Frank,” Willie observes, as the two subsequently not only continue their ”Of Mice and Men” relationship but experience the usual supposedly jarring (but, by now, ho-hum)
observations. These involve everything from cellular phones to rap music, gimmick fast-food burgers to USA Today. Following the lead of ”Back to the Future,” there is also the obligatory reference to Ronald Reagan, who, Willie marvels, is an ex-president and not just the guy in ”Cattle Queen of Montana.”
The boys return home to New Mexico, where they find not only malls and cash stations but the now middle-aged Joy Husband (Marcia Gay Harden), Willie`s wife, who in the intervening three decades has remarried, gotten a divorce and opened an antiques business. Furthermore, Willie`s daughter Jessica (Colleen Flynn) has two kids of her own, as well as a husband with a ponytail. And that husband is none other than-well, never mind. Even the Beaver wouldn`t believe junk like that.
Learning that her husband and brother have returned from what she thought was the Great Beyond, the settled-in Joy proves to be incredibly resigned if a bit miffed. When Willie says ”I`ve been frozen with Frankie for 29 years”
(admittedly, a better opener than ”Hi, honey, I`m home”), she retorts,
”This is not funny.” And when Willie tells Jessica that her Daddy and uncle had been ”frozen up like Popsicles,” she snaps, ”This is not funny.” No, it isn`t. Promising director W.D. Richter (”The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai”) and neophyte screenwriter Mark Andrus may have envisioned this as still another reworking of ”My Favorite Wife,” and, as such, the first cryogenics screwball comedy. But what it turns out to be is iced ennui. It has a few moments, but not nearly enough. Facile and predictable, ”Late for Dinner”-as they might have said in 1962-is strictly out to lunch.
”LATE FOR DINNER”
(STAR)
Directed by W.D. Richter; written by Mark Andrus; photographed by Peter Sova; production designed by Lilly Kilvert; edited by Richard Chew and Robert Leighton; music by David Mansfield; produced by Dan Lupovitz and Richter. A Castle Rock Entertainment release; opens Sept. 20 at the Esquire, Webster Place and outlying theaters. Running time: 1:35. MPAA rating: PG. Some strong language.
THE CAST
Willie Husband…………………………………………Brian Wimmer
Frank Lovegren…………………………………………..Peter Berg
Joy Husband……………………………………….Marcia Gay Harden
Jessica Husband……………………………………….Colleen Flynn
Bob Freeman…………………………………………Peter Gallagher