The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)

Wonderful character development!

Sick Product of a Sick System

Better Late Then Never

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

First, I should note that I've never read John Irving's novel on which "The Hotel New Hampshire" is based. I didn't think that it was a bad movie. Certainly the sort of movie that today's franchise-crazy studios would be reluctant to finance. I understand that John Irving liked Tony Richardson's movie, and his only criticism thereof was that it tried to be too faithful to the book, often making parts of it go by too quickly. Now I'm eager to read the book (of Irving's books, I've only read "The World According to Garp").It's not any sort of great movie, but I thought that it was worth seeing. The cast includes Beau Bridges, Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, Nastassja Kinski, Wallace Shawn - whom my parents met around the time that "My Dinner with Andre" got released - Seth Green and Amanda Plummer (put another way, it stars the Dude's brother, Clarice Starling, young #2, Nosferatu's daughter, Vizzini, Dr. Evil's son and Honeybunch).

The relationship between the cinema and the novels of John Irving has not always been a happy one. It always amazes me how a book as good as "A Prayer for Owen Meany" could be turned into a film as bad as "Simon Birch". With "The Cider-House Rules" Lasse Hallstrom managed to pull off his normal trick of turning everything he touches into pure treacle. The film of "The World According to Garp" left me with the feeling "What the hell was that all about?" .I think that the difficulty is that Irving's books do not always transfer well to the screen. They tend to be long, discursive, dealing with several different themes and with complicated plots and large casts of characters. These factors do not always make a novel unfilmable- there have, for example, been some great films based on the works of Dickens, a writer whom Irving greatly admires. In the case of Irving, however, film directors seem to struggle to find any equivalent to his authorial voice to hold his rather sprawling stories together.The plot of "The Hotel New Hampshire" would be difficult to summarise. It revolves around the Berry family and their five children, John, Franny, Frank, Lilly, and Egg. ("He began as an egg and he still is an egg". I hope you're happy with that explanation because it's the only one you're going to get). In the 1950s, the Berrys run a New Hampshire hotel which, with startling originality, they call the Hotel New Hampshire. Later on, for no good reason, they move to Vienna and run a hotel there which they also name the Hotel New Hampshire. (I say "for no good reason", but the real reason is that Irving himself had lived in Vienna as a student and couldn't resist featuring the city in his book). The film also features a performing bear, a dead dog, a plane crash, a dwarf who is also a successful author, terrorism, rape, incest, homosexuality and suicide. Have you got all that?One or two of the cast are quite good, such as Beau Bridges as Win, the Berry paterfamilias, Rob Lowe as John, the eldest son and the film's narrator, and Wilford Brimley as "Iowa Bob", the crusty old grandfather, but not all are of the same standard. A lot of Jodie Foster's films from the early and mid-eighties tended to suggest that she was fated to spend her adult acting career in the shadow of "Taxi Driver" and her other childhood successes, and this is one of them. As Franny she never really does much to suggest that later in the decade, around the time of "The Accused", she would emerge as one of Hollywood's top young actresses. The opening titles actually refer to "Nastassja Kinski as Susie the Bear"; when I first saw the film I remember thinking "well, that'll make a change from 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'!" In fact, Nastassja does not actually play the performing bear, who is played by a real bear. Her character Susie is a young woman who prefers to dress up as a bear because she does not like being a young woman very much.(Irving describes Susie as physically unattractive, so the ethereally beautiful Nastassja was hardly the most obvious choice to play her). "The Hotel New Hampshire" is not my favourite Irving novel; it is not, for example, in the same class as "Owen Meany". I did, nevertheless, enjoy it a lot more than I did the film. Director Tony Richardson is never able to make us believe in the idiosyncrasies of the various characters or to make us see any connection between the various disparate incidents that make up the plot. It is difficult to know what the film is about. Two characters have an incestuous affair, but it is not a film about incest. Another character is gay, but it is not about homosexuality. Another commits suicide (without any real explanation being given), but it is not about suicide. One is raped, but it is not about rape. Another is injured in a terrorist incident, but it is not about terrorism. Two more die in a plane crash, but it is not about air safety. Susie may dress as a bear, but it is not really about ursine transvestism. One could say of the book that it is about all these things (except perhaps air safety); the most one can say of the film that it mentions all these things but is not actually about any of them. 5/10

The film is John Irving weird and thus delightful in its way. The sense of light in the film is what delights me, almost delights me most about the movie. I recall lines from an Alun Lewis poem "Remember in the play of happiness . . . the joy is in the sharing of the feast. . . . ." I think that is what makes this film—a sense of shared joy, of exultation. The interplay of symbols and references passes easily enough and one almost smiles—almost.What most deeply touched me was the character Lilly. I know her. The image of her not passing the windows but going to them while the wind blows through the large empty room echoes many films after the gentle scene of Lilly returning to her typewriter to write the simple message, "Sorry, just not big enough. " I have been there and know why she refuses to pass the window.For me, that is all the film really needs to be outstanding. That is the film for me.

I read the book before I even knew the film version existed and absolutely loved it straightaway. Came across the film some time later and to be honest, wasn't expecting it to do much justice to John Irvings finest.. it's a great film though and I think manages that rare feat of capturing a lot of the books essence and charm without massacring the storyline in the process. When it's funny you laugh and when it's sad you pipe your eye-Yes, I admit it! Why not?! The Berry family in 'The Hotel New Hampshire' struck a chord in me on the page first of all, then endeared themselves to me further on the screen. The film has ever since remained my absolute favourite and shall continue to for as long as I can keep on glimpsing bits of myself and my close family/friends in many of the characters, the good AND bad bits. And be moved by each Berry family members particular 'journey' through life, searching for their own personal 'it' - happiness & contentment.. Cos y'know what they say;'Love floats too..just like Sorrow..' But unfortunately thats also the case with canine flatulence so I guess we could say we're all in various perpetual states of a)Love b)Sorrow or c)Flatulence in life at various stages in it..... but p'raps t'wud be just as well if we Didn't say it though...? ;-'