First Five Minutes Would Have Current Day Wokesters Livid

I've been binging on old Steve Martin movies lately, rewatching some of my favourites (like LA Story) and sifting through some of the filmography that I missed (like this one). And within the first five minutes, I instantly began laughing and noting to myself that that sort of slapstick-sexual comedy would never fly today. It also reminds me of just how much the times have changed, where things like that can no longer be played up for laughs in today's comedy... that's probably why so much of it feels sterile.

Anyway, I'm not even sure how I missed this movie among so many of Martin and Chase's classic work (been revisiting some of Chevy Chase's films recently too). I enjoyed their stuff since way back when they were on Saturday night live, but it took me decades to finally get around to this particular film. Still, I thought it was inventive for what it was trying to do, but the entire middle section was a bit of a disjointed mess. They managed to reel it all in with the ending, with the Chekhov's Gun moment coming at just the right time for a good payoff based on Rigby's past trauma. The explanation also helped tie together the whole plot about Juliet's missing father, but man, the middle section was just so such kaleidoscope of randomness that I felt it really hampered the momentum of the first and last sections of the film.