Yay! I found the perfect 90’s rom com
Ah the 90’s. Much simpler times for millions and millions of Millennials such as myself. A care free age when we grew up with MTV (the good MTV), Nirvana, Nintendo and Meg Ryan/Julia Roberts rom coms. We watched them fall in love over and over again, and secretly wished that we could pull off their hairdos. No… Really… I still want the Meg Ryan haircut.
But from precisely that era is my favorite rom com and surprisingly it does not entail entail emails, runaway brides. Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts. Yes. My favorite 90’s rom com is „America’s sweethearts“ free and it’s probably one of the most anonymous and yet underrated movie of the early 90’s. For Love or money.
To be quite frank I have vague memory of myself watching that precise movie on a rented VHS tape in the mid 90’s but it was this past weekend that I’ve found that movie again. Like a buried treasure, For love of money resurfaced in my Facebook feed last week and then casually introduced it to my fiancée. We had a date night this Friday and along with some wine, salad and BBQ chicken tenders we were actually in a quest for some appropriate movies. He left me in charge with the selection and a light bulb went of just above my head. Aha! I know what we should watch.
I’m so glad we did watched it and I’m even gladder it was a hit with Martin (my fiancé’s name). Who’d new my boy had a thing for rom coms and not disgust for this female oriented film genre? I was disappointed though to find out that it was a critical and commercial flop in the year it was released (1993) but let me tell you why it’s my perfect 90’s rom com.
For starters it’s directed by one of my favorite comedy directors Barry Sonnenfeld. He started his career as a cinematographer, but he later directed one of the best and highest grossing movies in Hollywood’s history. The Addams Family movies, Get Shorty, The Men In Black movies (and admittedly some of the worst like Wild Wild West).
But here the stars are Michael J. Fox and Gabrielle Anwar and the almost entire movie is set in the fictitious yet luxurious NYC hotel, The Bradbury. Michael J. Fox is Doug Ireland. Young and ambitious concierge in the hotel who besides pleasing every customer’s need, is looking for someone to invest in a dream hotel of his own. He also have the hots for his co-worker Andy (Gabrielle Anwar) but she’s actually the mistress of his future financier- the very rich and very much older Christian Hanover (Anthony Higgins).
You can pretty much predict the outcome and „they lived happily ever after“ end of the movie but what’s in between is some of the greatest set pieces, greatest New York shots and greatest lines ever uttered in a rom com.
May you pass things from your backside that even science cannot identify!
Short skirt on a breezy day, a real crowd-pleaser.
Oh and the greatest motivational line ever:
Nothing’s impossible Albert. Impossible just takes a couple extra phone calls.
As you can pretty much guess by now, Michael J. Fox is absolutely adorable and charming and Anwar is cute as a button, yet seductive breath of fresh air- straight from her show stealing scene in Scent of a woman.
The short yet memorable presence of the legends like Fyvush Finkel, Debra Monk, Dan Hedaya and Saverio Guerra offers much needed humor but the big theme (as the title suggests) is the ever present conundrum between the two characters. They are all searching for love and money, but they are actually looking for them in the same place. Or should I say same person. Christian Hanover. Doug wants Christian’s money to invest in his dream hotel and Andy want’s a life away from Bradbury’s perfume counter, where she works as a sales person.
You will laugh, you will cry, you will fall in love with the two leads, but until you do you will care about them. The movie won’t let you not to. Trust me. I get the fact that this movie is not on the 50 must see rom coms, or it’s not a Meg Ryan classic but I’m so glad I’ve discovered it yet again. I can now proudly say that I’ve found my perfect 90’s rom com and it’s For Love or Money.
der Interessante Moment sweetie