John Hughes
Un Biglietto In Due

There is a real abyss between the adolescent comedy laced with vulgarity, absurdity, and coarse jokes and this one directed in 1987 by John Hughes and starring the brilliant comedians Steve Martin and John Candy. But it is not a comedic comedy, if anything, grotesque, and its merit is that it truly flows pleasantly, without heaviness or rhetoric. The script even gives rise to moments of reflection that lead to softening and, in some cases, moving the audience.

The spectator imagines laughing from beginning to end, if only because of the two protagonists, and the start is already quite thunderous. You expect the protagonist will make it home for Thanksgiving and that it probably won't be easy, given that the entire nation moves en masse for the holiday. In the chaotic pre-holiday New York traffic, Neil Page (Martin) loses the taxi in a spectacular way. It will be the start of a series of incredible misadventures that will take him home only after two certainly abnormal days and nights. At the airport, he encounters his "taxi thief," a certain Del Griffith (Candy), who will become his companion in misfortune from that moment on. The two travel towards Chicago and, due to weather interferences, are involved in unexpected circumstances. To face them, the two team up, despite the manager's (Martin) suspicions. Candy (a shower ring salesman) proves to be kind, but annoying and messy. Along the way, Page/Martin's exasperation gravitates towards unexpected boundaries, both due to logistical challenges and the forced cohabitation. The sole objective is to return home to the family. But everything proceeds in the wrong direction. The vehicles are always unsuitable, the places to sleep are absurd dives, and the peripheral characters are shady silhouettes. In this endless journey home, the odd couple argues, fights, slowly gets to know each other, and reaches increasingly reasonable compromises, up to the ultimate effort: accepting each other despite their vast character differences.

Finally arrived in Chicago in the freezing trailer of a truck, it seems the two must part ways, to the great joy of the manager. However, Steve Martin realizes that Candy is a damn lonely man, and just as he is about to return home, he retraces his steps.

A moving ending, with an acting demonstration from Candy, who with a look between touched and desperate, breaks the hearts of the most attentive. Martin, too, is expressive and energetic. A well-blended couple that makes the comedy pleasant, smooth, sincere, and human. Never a gratuitous vulgarity, in a journey that is a mirror of an America with a thousand possibilities that stumbles over itself but stands up as soon as possible. A cold and detached America, yet warm in its affable complicity. Such truly light and unpretentious comedies, unfortunately, no longer exist.