Cute premise badly executed
It would have been nice if they understood something about 1939 America. This is back in the day when a man could still be considered a gentleman without everyone saying he was a "wuss." Daniel wasn't shocked by the short skirts, Claire walking around with her blouse undone and her bra showing, children swearing, Claire swearing -- heck, EVERYONE swearing. Maybe after he was told Claire wouldn't mind a strange man staying overnight in her home, he figured she moonlighted. By 1939 standards, she acted like it.
He wasn't stunned by the automobiles, the light switches that didn't make a noise when you flipped them, the weird looking phones or any of the appliances in the kitchen. He'd seen a television at the World's Fair -- with a tiny screen, blurry picture and in black and white, but he took a 32" color TV with cable in stride. And when he looks through the coffee table book on American history, he does so with the same kind of idle curiosity that you or I would exhibit, even when he thumbs quickly through the second World War that he missed, and the dropping of the atomic bomb.
In 1939, he'd be more likely to be living on the air base than in his own home, and eating at the mess hall than becoming a good cook. He's head over heels in love with a woman he grew up with, and he looks like he's at least his mid-thirties -- she would have to be the same -- and she waited for him all that time rather than giving up on a guy who couldn't commit? If you listen to the music from those days, it's all about falling in love and getting married. That was the norm. The guys who didn't want to get married were the weirdos. Grown ups settled down, got married and had children. It was the American dream until a few decades ago.
This was a movie about the 1930's from a writer who didn't know anything about the time. It was a movie that should have had culture shock, but since it was intent on being a romance it didn't have the culture shock common sense would have included.
Back when it came out, Mel Gibson could sell anything. Women would drag their boyfriends to see him just so they could swoon uncritically, so studios wouldn't think twice about putting him in a half-baked script like this. Mel's uncritical swoon factor is largely gone, and we're reminded that the only thing he played convincingly as he sleepwalked his way through this movie was anger as he was threatening the airman.
Once upon a time, I thought Mel Gibson hung the moon, and I probably would have loved this then. A couple hours ogling Mel Gibson? What's not to like?
Sadly, things have changed, and I could take my eyes off Gibson's then gorgeous face long enough to notice the flaws in the script and his acting.
Just because I don't have patience for obviously false beliefs doesn't mean I'm intolerant.