Joe Versus the Volcano
1990 Warner Bros.
Written and Directed by: John Patrick Shanley
Starring: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Abe Vigoda, Dan Hedaya, Barry McGovern, Ossie Davis
MPAA Rating: PG; Running Time: 102 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 7/10
Joe's life sucks.
Every morning he wakes up early to spend all day at a soul-sucking job he hates. Then he comes home to nothing. To make matters worse, he always feel sick. And now the literal coup de grace: his doctor tells him he has a "brain cloud," and only six months to life. That's when Joe is met with a proposition.
A wealthy business man
will give Joe a few days of spending sprees, and a free yacht ride to an island
paradise--where Joe will then be sacrificed to a volcano. It seems the native
islanders, descended from shipwrecked Hebrews and Druids, have a ritual that
pacifies the island's volcano. However, the ritual requires a willing sacrifice every 100
years, and considering these natives are fat and happy on Orange Fanta, none want to take the lava leap themselves. It's
Joe to the rescue. Along the way, he'll meet three very different women who
look startlingly similar.
Surrealist romantic comedies don't come along very often. Joe Versus the Volcano is part of a very small club, as it very admirably attempts to do something different with this usually formula-dependent genre. Tom Hanks plays sad-sack Joe as an oddball hypochondriac depressive. It's a more reserved performance than some of Hanks' other work at this time, but he's still given select moments to be wacky, particularly when Joe quits his job. Shanley films Joe's scatologically-related workplace as a sort of dadaist dystopian nightmare, and Joe's later adventures at sea in a very theatrical, stage-like manner. Along on that ocean adventure is one of three Meg Ryan-played characters. While we get to know Joe well, each Meg Ryan character is only there for 1/3 of the film, and we never get a full picture of any of them. This is perhaps Joe Versus the Volcano's greatest flaw. It--again very admirably--aims for depth, but with Ryan's characters, rarely gets below the waves.
Thankfully, though, a lot of the film hits. Shanley's themes about appreciating one's life generally work, the atmosphere is engaging, and as the entirety of the 90's proved, Hanks and Ryan have fantastic chemistry. Georges Delerue also adds a lovely score. This has got to be one of the breeziest films about a depressed, soon to die person ever made. I can't believe this same guy made Congo.
Surrealist romantic comedies don't come along very often. Joe Versus the Volcano is part of a very small club, as it very admirably attempts to do something different with this usually formula-dependent genre. Tom Hanks plays sad-sack Joe as an oddball hypochondriac depressive. It's a more reserved performance than some of Hanks' other work at this time, but he's still given select moments to be wacky, particularly when Joe quits his job. Shanley films Joe's scatologically-related workplace as a sort of dadaist dystopian nightmare, and Joe's later adventures at sea in a very theatrical, stage-like manner. Along on that ocean adventure is one of three Meg Ryan-played characters. While we get to know Joe well, each Meg Ryan character is only there for 1/3 of the film, and we never get a full picture of any of them. This is perhaps Joe Versus the Volcano's greatest flaw. It--again very admirably--aims for depth, but with Ryan's characters, rarely gets below the waves.
Thankfully, though, a lot of the film hits. Shanley's themes about appreciating one's life generally work, the atmosphere is engaging, and as the entirety of the 90's proved, Hanks and Ryan have fantastic chemistry. Georges Delerue also adds a lovely score. This has got to be one of the breeziest films about a depressed, soon to die person ever made. I can't believe this same guy made Congo.
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