This film is a pretty good example of turning the "buddy" movie into a film about two women who discover a common friendship. Shelley Long is a woman who has spent years studying for a stage acting career. As pointed out in another review on this thread, her character her is like "Diane Chambers" in CHEERS, except that Long is not lording her superior education over everyone. She does make one exception. She is trying to get into a course led by one of the great actors of this generation (Robert Prosky, in a clever role - he uses several accents), who is a Russian stage star - a "Stanislavsky" type. Prosky is quite selective about who comes in. He chooses Long because of her impressive resume. But he also allows in Bette Midler, who is ... well a hooker.
Bette wants to better herself, and she'd like to be an actress. But she doesn't have the background or the money (Long has to borrow it from her parents). She gets in (it is more than hinted she sold some of her wares to Prosky). He looks amused as he decides to include her in the course.
He is an intensive acting genius, and we see him demonstrate how to be realistic in many details (such as dying on stage). He is also insisting that they all take good notes, but leave their notebooks with him to be returned the following week. A hard taskmaster, he probably does know much about acting.
In the meantime both Long and Midler meet Peter Coyote, and he is dating both without knowing of each other's connection. This is good, as Long and Midler dislike each other (Long looking down on this pretentious hooker, Midler hating this overbearing overachiever). Then, one day, Long is accompanying Coyote out for dinner. He enters a shop, and it suddenly explodes. Long (in deep mourning) goes to the morgue. Shortly Midler shows up, and after a brief screaming fit between them, they discover that the corpse simply can't be Coyote - it's lacking a certain piece of evidence that it is.
Midler and Long decide to join forces to find out what happened to Coyote. They can't find any assistance from the police (who have an open and shut accidental death). But soon they are being pursued by Federal agents led by John Schuck. They manage to shake him off, and slowly follow the few clues they find to realize they have to cross the country to follow their lover...and to force him to choose between them.
Eventually they do find Coyote, only to find another less pleasant side to him. And they find that half the world seems to be pursuing them as well.
The film has great moments in it, such as Long using Prosky's training to fool some people, and Long and Midler playing Eastern Europeans trying to board a plane (the right plane) at an airport. Then there is George Carlin, who plays an American Indian with the attitudes of...well George Carlin, God bless him. The film is also interesting as Long and Midler, once their cooperation grows and they find what Coyote is like, discover that they really like each other more than they thought. Look at several scenes after the middle of the film where the ladies start helping each other with grooming tips. I suggest that this film, with THELMA AND LOUIS, finally cemented the idea that a "buddy" film did not need two men to be the "buddies". And both films showed that such lady "buddy" films could be great entertainment.
Bette wants to better herself, and she'd like to be an actress. But she doesn't have the background or the money (Long has to borrow it from her parents). She gets in (it is more than hinted she sold some of her wares to Prosky). He looks amused as he decides to include her in the course.
He is an intensive acting genius, and we see him demonstrate how to be realistic in many details (such as dying on stage). He is also insisting that they all take good notes, but leave their notebooks with him to be returned the following week. A hard taskmaster, he probably does know much about acting.
In the meantime both Long and Midler meet Peter Coyote, and he is dating both without knowing of each other's connection. This is good, as Long and Midler dislike each other (Long looking down on this pretentious hooker, Midler hating this overbearing overachiever). Then, one day, Long is accompanying Coyote out for dinner. He enters a shop, and it suddenly explodes. Long (in deep mourning) goes to the morgue. Shortly Midler shows up, and after a brief screaming fit between them, they discover that the corpse simply can't be Coyote - it's lacking a certain piece of evidence that it is.
Midler and Long decide to join forces to find out what happened to Coyote. They can't find any assistance from the police (who have an open and shut accidental death). But soon they are being pursued by Federal agents led by John Schuck. They manage to shake him off, and slowly follow the few clues they find to realize they have to cross the country to follow their lover...and to force him to choose between them.
Eventually they do find Coyote, only to find another less pleasant side to him. And they find that half the world seems to be pursuing them as well.
The film has great moments in it, such as Long using Prosky's training to fool some people, and Long and Midler playing Eastern Europeans trying to board a plane (the right plane) at an airport. Then there is George Carlin, who plays an American Indian with the attitudes of...well George Carlin, God bless him. The film is also interesting as Long and Midler, once their cooperation grows and they find what Coyote is like, discover that they really like each other more than they thought. Look at several scenes after the middle of the film where the ladies start helping each other with grooming tips. I suggest that this film, with THELMA AND LOUIS, finally cemented the idea that a "buddy" film did not need two men to be the "buddies". And both films showed that such lady "buddy" films could be great entertainment.