Arthur Hiller
Una Fortuna Sfacciata

THE REVIEW

Lauren Ames (Shelley Long) is a sophisticated and somewhat snobbish girl with the ambitious dream of acting in Shakespearean theater. Sandy Brozinsky (Bette Midler) is a flashy and somewhat vulgar aspiring actress who doesn't mind taking on hard roles from time to time. Both enroll in Stanislaw Korzenowsky's acting course, a great Soviet actor. From the start, there is no love lost between the two, and they don't miss a chance to laugh at each other's mistakes and constantly needle each other. Lauren meets and falls in love with a man. Sandy also meets and falls in love with a man. Unfortunately, it's the same man for both: Michael Santers, a self-proclaimed school teacher. The two women discover the complication in a hospital morgue: Michael has perished in an explosion claimed by a terrorist group. The rivalry turns into hatred, but Lauren and Sandy are both stubborn and determined, and realizing that the body in the morgue is not that of their beloved, they decide to get to the bottom of the matter and see clearly, not so much to discover who Michael truly is but to ask him to choose one of them. The two thus find themselves involved in something much bigger than they are, with them as antagonists of both the KGB and the CIA. Michael is indeed a CIA agent, but he is double-dealing in favor of the Soviets, and having gotten hold of a potent herbicide capable of destroying vegetation for miles, he attempts to blackmail both sides. So Sandy and Lauren are looking for Michael, but so are the CIA and the KGB looking for Michael.

Between one zany adventure and another, chases, races, hilarious lines ("I refuse to believe Michael lowered himself to be with someone like you", "Oh, he lowered himself, and he lowered himself quite well!"), fights and lots of action, the film concludes with the obligatory happy ending: the "bad guy" dies, the two heroines become best friends, and even the CIA and KGB agents make friends.

A truly delightful slapstick comedy from 1987. Shelley Long and Bette Midler are excellent and incredibly funny in their roles, the former poised and moralistic, the latter chaotic and boisterous. Two excellent comedic actresses who make a simple and perhaps somewhat cliché story truly hilarious. A film that is, all in all, very entertaining, with a Midler in great form (professionally, not physically, as during those years she was decidedly plump), and a Long at the height of her comedic ability.

Even though it's over twenty years old, the film is still highly recommended to anyone wanting to have a light-hearted laugh.