Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

Neal Page, a tired executive, is ready to be home for Thanksgiving.  It will be a long, painful, circuitous trip, described by the film's title PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES from 1987.  Writer/director John Hughes scored again with audiences and critics with this funny, at times even sentimental movie that represented a step away from the teen epics that made him a household name in the mid 1980s.  With this and SHE'S HAVING A BABY, Hughes was attempting more adult fare, though his sardonic and at times crude take sometimes leavened the drama.  Curious that he would then decide to regress by focusing on juveniles (in chronological age and level of humor) in films like HOME ALONE and CURLY SUE.

Ah, back to Mr. Page.  Steve Martin gets to demonstrate his more fastidious side with this buttoned down, cynical character, perhaps closer to the real man than some of his earlier roles.  His foil: Del Griffith, a loud, slovenly shower curtain ring salesman who becomes an unwanted travel mate and will repeatedly annoy and frustrate Neal beyond tolerance.  It all begins with a stolen cab ride, and only gets more harrowing.  As played by John Candy, Del is the sort of guy you can't help but love even when you want to wring his sizable neck.  The actor brings real warmth and pathos amidst the rough house comedy.  That sentence really does describe the entire movie.

Neal's destination is Chicago.  Shame a blizzard diverts the plane from O'Hare to Witchita.  And the other titular vehicles, one of which is a rental car that loses its roof due to a fire, are the settings for this updated odd couple/buddy comedy/road movie. Well, also train stations and rental car counters, the latter of which allows Martin a lengthy, profane, showstopping rant that is matched by Hughes regular Edie McClurg (as an agent) with only a few words.  It's nearly a classic scene, as is the one with the redneck couple, the shared hotel bed, and the rental car's side swipe of two semis.  Hughes can rarely resist the broad gag.  To me, those moments work a bit better than the heartfelt ones, which get a little too syrupy for my taste these days. Maybe not so much when I was eighteen. Beware the wistful freeze frame.  But at all times, the actors are terrific, and transcend being mere types.

PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES is far from a perfect film, but manages to amuse and strike embers in viewers' hearts in somewhat equal measure.  It has become a holiday favorite for me and many, many others.  I always enjoy those cameos, too.  And the post credits scene.