Two much

Year of release : 1995

Run time : 1h58m

Genre : Comedy / Romance / Screwball

Cast : Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Joan Cusack, Danny Aiello

The movie is based on the 1975 Donald Westlake novel of the same name, and on the 1984 French movie, Le Jumeau.

Art is a former painter who is trying to keep his art gallery open by selling his paintings (ugly modern art) to widows at the funeral, pretending their dead husband bought the piece before dying.

Reading the obituaries regularly for content, he finds his next target, the widow of the millionaire Eugene Palletto. Unluckily for him, this time he talks to the son,Gene, who is not easily fooled, and when Art tells him his father bought his painting last Monday, Gene tells him his father was in the hospital, and so it was the Monday before that, mentioning that his father had no interest in modern art. Unluckily for him, Gene is a mobster, and he puts his henchmen on him.

Art runs away by hiding in Gene’s ex wife’s car.

Betty helps him get away from Gene, and the two end up at Hotel Paraiso. While they talk, a wedding ring falls from the hotel guest upstairs, as he’s cheating on his wife, and lands on Betty’s palm, who thinks it’s a match made in heaven. Betty tells him she’s been married twice with Gene, and she wants Art to be her new husband.

Betty is rich, lives in a mansion with her sister, and one day, Art ends up in her sister’s bathroom, as they are connected through a pool room, as she’s taking a shower.

Betty doesn’t waste any time, as she wants to marry Art in 2 weeks, and she’s already making arrangements.

Betty’s sister doesn’t like Art, as she thinks he’s a gigolo who marries her for her money.

Art tries to tell Betty to postpone the wedding, but she starts screaming, and he is afraid to upset her for some reason.

Art is starting to like Liz, who is an art teacher, and with whom he has more things in common. Liz is dating on and off a married man who doesn’t want to leave his wife.

Hearing she likes men with glasses, Art starts wearing glasses letting his long hair down, and pretends to be his twin brother (that he doesn’t have), Bart, especially since he is also trying to dodge Gene and his men who are harassing him now.

He is asking his assistant to go along with it, and she helps him, but thinks him crazy.

His assistant calls him while at Betty’s place, and he pretends to be talking to Bart.

When Betty comes by his art gallery, Art pretends to be Bart. Talking to him, Betty invites him for dinner, suggesting he could be dating her sister, for they are very much alike.

He then walks out, goes to a store, steals or buys a shirt, and comes back with his hair in a ponytail, as Art, to talk to Betty.

At dinner, Liz likes this Bart persona Art puts on, and agrees to go out with him. By the way, he completely ignores Betty, his fiancé, while he hits on Liz in front of her, as Bart.

 

Gene is still in love with Betty, and wants her back, so he makes things hard for Art. Art is afraid of Gene, and hides behind Betty, as she’s not afraid of Gene, she actually beats him with the flowers he offers her.

I personally enjoyed the movie, it was funny to watch Art trying to maintain both relationships.

Betty is impulsive, and doesn’t think of the consequences.

Liz likes “Bart” and starts dating him, and then admits she actually likes Art.

We don’t know what Art wants, for he seems to like Betty, but doesn’t want to marry her, I guess, then likes her sister, and dates them both at the same time, in the same house, and goes along with the wedding, as Gene wants Betty to be happy, and threatens to k1ll him if he makes her unhappy.

Although Art and Bart are never together in the same room, nobody thinks that maybe Bart doesn’t exist.

I personally think he should have ended up alone because of the game he played on the sisters.

Although a mobster, Gene has a soft side, which we can see when he’s with Betty, as he really loves her. I liked what he said to Art about how he feels for her.

The acting was good. I thought Daryl Hannah was the only one who didn’t give 100%.

The soundtrack had Latino influences.

The movie holds a score of under 36% from the critics and the audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 5.4 rating on IMDB.

The movie grossed 13.6 million dollars against a production budget of 24 million dollars.

While Antonio Banderas was nominated for a Goya Award (the Spanish Oscars) for his role, Melanie Griffith and Daryl Hannah were both nominated for the Raspberry Award and the Stinkers Bad Movie Award.

You can watch the full movie for free on the Ok.Ru platform in English and dubbed in other languages.

Rating : Worth a watch !