Hidden Streaming Gem: "Miami Rhapsody"
Wednesday, July 5, 2017 at 12:30PM Hello! Robert here. The other night as I was enjoying my long Fourth of July weekend I was in the mood for a movie; something I hadn't seen, something light and funny, something for a summer night on the couch with a bottle of rosé. After clicking around on HBONow for a few minutes boy did I ever find what I was looking for: a gem of a '90s pseudo-intellectual rom-com called Miami Rhapsody. Won't you take a journey back in time with me and explore this strange little film?
I had been peripherally aware of this movie, written and directed by David Frankel of Devil Wear's Prada and Collateral Beauty fame, as it was one of Sarah Jessica Parker's forays into the film world before slipped on Carrie Bradshaw's Manolo's until the mid-2000s. The plot is vague, but what you quickly realize about Miami Rhapsody is that it's a very-thinly concealed Woody Allen knock off, all the way down to Mia Farrow as a newly sexually liberated woman who touches her face a lot. And when I say knock off, I mean the movie literally begins on a black screen with jazz music playing and the actors names presented alphabetically (in pink, though, because Miami). We then fade in on Parker at her therapist's office where she does a Broscht Belt routine to her off screen therapist about the nature of love.
As an imitation it actually works pretty well. Parker is great in the female-Woody Allen stand in role (see also: Rebecca Hall in Vicki Cristina Barcelona), and the film breezes right along as her various family members (Farrow is her mother and Carla Gugino is in the Dianne Wiest sister role, she's having an affair with a dentist played by Jeremy Piven) reveal to her the extent of their infidelities in extremely Allen-esque flashback sequences.
Now, it's definitely light fare with a few chuckles, but no real substance. None of the revelations about marriage or infidelity are particularly insightful, and for the title, the film rarely succeeds in casting Miami in the same starring role as Manhattan plays in Allen's films. Farrow is having an affair with her mother-in-law's nurse, played by Antonio Banderas, and some tone-deaf attempts at exploring his Cuban heritage is about as much Miamification as we get. I honestly spent most of the last twenty minutes lost in thought about how hard Mia Farrow was trolling Woody Allen when she signed on to do this film only a few years after their very public, harrowing separation.
That being said, if you aren't already familiar and are looking for some light-and-easy entertainment, it's definitely worth checking out. Oh, and Naomi Campbell is in it as a model who is inexplicably having an affair with Parker's balding brother. That alone is pretty much worth the price of admission!
Has anyone else seen this movie? If not, will you be checking it out this weekend? Was Mia trolling Woody with this one? Let us know!
Reader Comments (3)
Shirtless! (and still hirsute) Jeremy Piven. That's all I remember about this cute movie.
I do like this film. I love the scenes with Kelly Bishop who tries to seduce the late Paul Mazursky by claiming she was a Rockette by showing him her thigh.
Wow, Emily Gilmore.... Richard Gilmore is a lucky man to nab that and to think, he would've married Pennilynn Lott... UGH!
"a bottle of rosé..." Bye! I'm done here!