The Favor (1994)

Good movie but grossly overrated

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Kathy is a bookkeeper in Portland, Oregon who has two children, Gina and Hannah, with her science professor husband Peter. Her 15-year high school reunion is coming up, and she can't help but wonder what life would be like with her old boyfriend Tom. Kathy's best friend Emily agrees to go to Denver, where Tom lives, and investigate what he is like. Emily comes home from Denver claiming to have had wild sex with Tom. Meanwhile, Emily's younger artist boyfriend Elliot is nice but he and Emily break up over his lack of interest in boring stuff.Miscommunication results in a lot of laughs later. And it just happens that Elliot is going to Denver for his job. This sets up some wild situations.This is pretty good most of the time. Some of the jokes didn't work for me. In particular, I didn't care for the women's obsession with Brad Pitt's body. I get that if it were the other way around, I would understand. But this just wasn't part of the appeal for me.I've always like Harley Jane Kozak, from the time she was a college professor on "The Guiding Light". She always has such a pleasant personality and she's attractive, though not beautiful. She does well here.Pitt does a good job too and is mostly pleasant.Some of the best comedy comes during Kathy's fantasies or nightmares. Though in one case, Kathy is having neither a nightmare nor a fantasy. She is actually wearing a smoking hot dress that a hooker might wear, with a wild hairstyle. I don't really think of Kozak as sexy, and while I got the joke when her husband didn't notice when she put on a sexy nightie and behaved in an alluring way, this is just a standard joke with married couples and I was able to appreciate it without being turned on by Kozak.There is one particularly funny scene where Kathy takes a drug not intended for her. Even though there are kids, and a kids' birthday party, kids that age shouldn't watch this. Some of the sexual humor is quite potent. I had a good time, mostly.

This movie was actually good. I don't personally know anyone who saw it before I turned them onto it. Elizabeth McGovern was great in this one. She did great job of being the woman most women would love to be like (I.e..."Remember when we said we'd stop when it wasn't fun anymore? Well, it's not fun anymore"). Bill Pullman was very good as the silly husband with his cute little harmonica. Harley Kozak is good in this too(Good enough for me to be surprised that I haven't seen her in anything else). The only character that didn't impress me was Brad Pitt. It's a comedy about a married woman who wonders what her old high school boyfriend is up to now. Haven't we all wondered something along that line ? :)

O my God. This is so bad it's nearly funny. Yes, nearly. The twists and all the cliché's are in here. I just saw the movie with a friend (because we had breakfast and put the TV on) and just kept shaking are heads.Harley Jane Kozak is so overacting it's just pathetic. And why Bill Pullman is playing in ANY film is beyond me. The guy has ONE look. The "i lost my glasses and now i have to squeeze my eyes to see anything" look.Brad Pitt just wasn't convincing. He's done far more better jobs than this.This film is just BAD. No surprise from a director who gave us 'gems' as 'Mystic Pizza' and 'my favorite martian'.Sorry, i hate to be all negative about a film but this one gave me no choice.

An adorable romantic comedy directed by Donald Petrie (Mystic Pizza, Grumpy Old Men). Great Music with a lot of blues and Ray Charles! Bill Pullman (While you Were Sleeping, Zero Effect) is Peter who is happily married to gorgeous Kathy Whiting, Harley Jane Kozak (When Harry Met Sally) has a Cinderella Complex. Although she is happily married, she has fantasies about an old boy friend whom she had a relationship with. There was no final closure, and hopes that one day he will show up in his plaid shirt, and they will gallivant off on his white horse into the horizon. She is always day dreaming about this guy. Emily, Elizabeth McGovern (Ordinary People, The Misadventures of Margaret) is Kathy best friend. Kathy asks Emily to look up her old boyfriend. Emily is an alter ego of Kathy, who is living through her. Painter Elliott Brad Pitt (A River Runs Through It, Legends of the Fall) is Emily ‘s boy-friend, who is ten years younger than her. This is a situation comedy where the one is thinking one thing and expecting something to happen but something completely different happens. That is what makes this movie funny! It is a comedy of errors!Favorite Quotes:"I was kind of happy, in a miserable kind of way. Is that worse than being miserable in a happy kind of way? "; "I like sleeping, it makes the years go by faster."; "You are like a disease you invade someone's life and attack yourself." Favorite scenes: Peter playing the harmonica, Kathy in her red dress and high heels getting stuck in the cracks, Elliot getting punched twice in the face for no reason at all. This is just a fun, hilarious unpretentious comedy! I have the tape and enjoy watching it! Just plain fun.