The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
MGM DVD (region 1)
d. Tony Richardson; pr Neil Hartley, Pieter Kroonenberg, David J. Patterson; scr. Tony Richardson; novel. John Irving; ph. David Watkin; ed. Robert K. Lambert; cast. Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, Beau Bridges, Nastassja Kinski, Mathew Modine, Wilford Brimley, Paul McCrane, Seth Green, Joely Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Lisa Banes, Jennie Dundas (109 mins)
The two adaptations of novels by John Irving that emerged in the 1980s are generally considered problematic movies that only partially captured what many considered the author’s uniquely sorrowful humor. Thus, the films of The Hotel New Hampshire and The World According to Garp are still best remembered only as failed experiments. Indeed, the prominence of Robin Williams in the latter film has perhaps unfairly sidelined the former which, despite its many flaws, is a more intriguing tonal hybrid, a venture into America by a British director, Tony Richardson, who was sometimes noted for his irreverence and his fondness for eccentric and undisciplined spirits somehow put upon by the surrounding world. It is this quality that emerges in The Hotel New Hampshire, which attempts in part to look at quirky Americana through a decidedly European sensibility. As an outsider’s perspective, it is part of a wave of British directors to try their hand at American cinema, following on from the likes of John Schlesinger and Karel Reisz. Like them, Richardson is a generation older than the most contemporary British invasion – comprising of primarily Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Alan Parker and Adrian Lyne – and there is a woeful sense of romantic folly to his work here, but almost as if he is somehow overwhelmed by the material. There are offbeat pleasures to be had from such bizarre substance however.
The Hotel New Hampshire tells the sage of an unusual family, headed by patriarch Beau Bridges. Complete with a flatulent dog named Sorrow, this family follows the father’s dream of opening his own hotel. They buy an old school and turn it into a hotel, but there seem few guests. Brother and sister Rob Lowe and Jodie Foster have a decidedly unusual interest in each other, a tension which grows through the film, and when Foster is raped by the man she longs after (Mathew Modine) Lowe wants her avenged and protected. The family sells the premises and soon moves to a rather lowly hotel in Vienna, frequented by political radicals and assorted prostitutes. There they meet Nastassja Kinski, a young woman who feels most secure when wearing a bear suit. They try to clean up the hotel but tragedy strikes when two of them die in a plane accident. The radicals plan a terrorist action which is thwarted and events soon find Bridges is blinded but proclaimed a hero by the Viennese. The youngest daughter, who has stopped growing, writes a book and becomes a famous author. They thus return to America extremely wealthy although they seem forever sorrowful and burdened by their dreams and successes. They now seek to regain the title hotel for their father even if he can no longer see it. There, Lowe and Foster finally confront the illicit passion which has been simmering between them. read more