Shortcut to Happiness

email this story
read comments (13)
post a comment

I received a DVD screener of Shortcut to Happiness last week, but I lent it to a friend last weekend and only got around to watching it this morning. It opens in six mid-size burghs (Las Vegas, Rochester, Fort Myers, Columbus, Albuquerque and Santa Fe) on 7.13 on its way to the bargain bin.

Alec Baldwin directed a version of this film six years ago (in addition to starring and producing) before washing his hands and having his name taken off -- the direction is now credited to "Harry Fitzpatrick." I reviewed the whole story last October, and the N.Y. Post ran a little thing on it today.

I knew this reputed train wreck of a movie would be problematic, but you always have the hope that it won't be totally forgettable and that at least part of it -- a scene, a line of dialogue, anything -- will be worth the effort of watching.

There's one moment that qualifies. It's an anger scene with Baldwin, who's playing the lead role of a frustrated, somewhat talented writer who sells his soul to the devil, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, in exchange for "success." We all know that Baldwin does anger pretty well, and here he gets to do one of those self- loathing, had-it-up-to-here, "I can't do this anymore!" scenes that climaxes with his throwing an IBM Selectric out of his living-room window. It comes around 20 or 25 minutes into the film, and it's the first scene that doesn't feel poorly written or badly acted or just plain inert. It feels hard and real.

It got me in particular because I've experienced a little writer's rage myself. Most of it when I was younger and hadn't yet figured out how to let it out, and or at least write with a semblance of assurance. Mainly when I was struggling with low-pay freelance work and living on Bank Street in the West Village, back when I had to use white-out to fix errors and when little dabs of white-out would stain my jeans and shirts.

On top of which Baldwin's flying-typewriter scene reminded me of Jane Fonda doing precisely the same thing in Fred Zinneman's Julia (1978), when, as Lillian Hellman, she sends her Underwood crashing through an upstairs window of a Cape Cod cottage she's living in with Dashiel Hammett (Jason Robards).

Moore vs. Blitzer and Gupta<< previous | next >>Paramount theatres on the lot

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 10, 2007 at 12:39 PM

comment #1

christian says ...

i can't remember who it was...a great screenwriter singled out that scene from JULIA as total bullshit since hellman would never have thrown her means of income out a window.

Posted by christian at July 10, 2007 2:10 PM

comment #2

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Christian: My feelings exactly. Even in my worst, most self-doubting moments as a struggling journalist, I never, ever would have trashed my typewriter. But the emotion in the Baldwin and Fonda scenes is true.

Posted by gruver1 at July 10, 2007 2:59 PM

comment #3

Edward says ...

Certain considerations need to be made for the sake of art, even though the scene would be abusrd in real life. Like Jeffrey says, 'the emotion in the Baldwin and Fonda scenes is true.'

Posted by Edward at July 10, 2007 4:04 PM

comment #4

nemo says ...

In real life throwing the typewriter out the windows is more likely something a young, very immature writer might do.

I had some first-hand experience with this in college. One evening when I was walking across the campus I came within 5 yards of being fatally brained by a typewriter that came flying out of a third floor dorm room window. It hit the ground with a hell of a bang right in front of me.

I was scared shitless for a few seconds, then red-hot angry for a few seconds (picturing myself bleeding to death with a typewriter embedded in my fractured skull), and then I laughed out loud about it. The feeling was just like Churchill's remark that there's nothing so exhilarating as being shot at to no ill effect.

I never found out who was the fool that threw that typewriter. It was an Olivetti, by the way.

Posted by nemo at July 10, 2007 4:36 PM

comment #5

giantman says ...

I have never thrown a typewriter, but I sure have cursed them, spat on them and hit them plenty of times.

Posted by giantman at July 10, 2007 4:45 PM

comment #6

Josh Massey says ...

Jesus, Baldwin is using a typewriter? How long was this film delayed?

Posted by Josh Massey at July 10, 2007 5:19 PM

comment #7

BurmaShave says ...

One day there's going to be a film delayed so long that the whole principal cast is going to be dead when it comes out. You know it's bound to happen.

Posted by BurmaShave at July 10, 2007 5:42 PM

comment #8

Stephe96 says ...

That typewriter is a "rude, thoughtless little pig!!!"

Posted by Stephe96 at July 10, 2007 8:01 PM

comment #9

nemo says ...

I'd love to see a Michael Bay action movie someday, maybe starring Bruce Willis, but instead of the hero dodging hurtling cars, trucks, and SUVs, he dodges hurtling typewriters thrown by frustrated writers. Writers with old-fashioned tastes in writing instruments.

Posted by nemo at July 10, 2007 8:38 PM

comment #10

nemo says ...

Any thoughts on why throwing a typewriter makes so much sense, but it's hard to imagine anyone throwing a computer?

My first theory is that laptops have a sleek but delicate quality. Typewriters always seemed like they were built to take a lot of punishment, like an old Soviet-era tank. A typewriter is practically asking for punishment!

My second theory, which I like even better, is that typewriters are so freakin' passive-aggressive. If you're having trouble with your writing, that damn typewriter won't do a thing for you but sit there accusingly, a mute witness to your failures. But on a computer, you can always go off and surf the Internet or play games. A computer is always your little pal for playing hooky when your work isn't going so well.

Posted by nemo at July 10, 2007 8:48 PM

comment #11

Bilge says ...

>One day there's going to be a film delayed
> so long that the whole principal cast is
> going to be dead when it comes out. You
> know it's bound to happen.

I believe that there are two films directed by Orson Welles - THE DEEP and THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND -- that will eventually claim this crown. When they're finally released.

Posted by Bilge at July 10, 2007 10:48 PM

comment #12