Could Have Been SO MUCH more Original!
Something to Talk About was written by Callie Khouri, who won an Oscar in 1991 for penning the now famous Thelma & Louise. Both films center around strong willed women who have to deal with men who are- well jerks, basically. But unlike the 1991 masterpiece, the 1995 dramedy tries to make everything too perfect in the end, and there are no surprises or realistic conclusions.
Julia Roberts, in a very bad 90s wig, finds out her husband Dennis Quaid is cheating on her. Naturally she leaves him and her sister, Kyra Sedgwick (with the best lines) knees him in the balls when he comes back to apologize. "Lick it, stamp it and mail it to someone who gives a BEEP." The first part of the movie is sharper and much more intelligent about its characters. We find out that Roberts herself was not perfect in this marriage, and that her parents (Robert Duvall and Gena Rowlands) have their own beef to settle. But the issue with Something to Talk About is that as it glazes by, in country western fashion of course, it becomes more of a Hallmark of the Month movie then a gritty character drama that could have dealt with the issues of infidelity so much more - nastier. Consider their daughter. She's essentially a Show Piece for the movie to have an excuse for everyone to be at the "big horse show", so that they can gawk over family values and finally make up. That's not how the real world works. Roberts should have never taken Quaid back. And even if she takes a year off to "go back to school" (whatever that means; women's lib most likely since Khouri is a feminist), she still "has a date" at the end of the movie with him, not the nice man next door who she should have ended up with.
There's the obvious characters like the salt of the earth Aunt, who tells Roberts to poison Quaid when they have a dinner date. "Get yourself a lawyer", he says in the hospital bed. That's funny. What's not is the scenes that follow, when Quaid decides to call off the divorce because he realizes "I really do love her." Come on. And the drama between Duvall and Rowlands is pointless. Such strong actors deserve better then the dribble they get to yell at each other on the porch of their large western home, though its fun to watch Gena get drunk and say her doctor thinks she has "wide hips", and for Duvall to tell her that isn't essentially a compliment.
If everyone had acted more like Kyra Sedgwick, the movie would have deserved another screenplay nomination for Khouri. But alas, it turns into a conservative family values picture at the end, and despite another unique score by Hans Zimmer (who also scored Thelma & Louise), this is one of Roberts weakest entires.
FINAL GRADE: C