Hotel New Hampshire, The

I have no idea if John Irving's best-selling novel was any good but I am sure that writer-director Tony Richardson's screen adaptation, which apparently sticks close to the novel, is not. This is doubly surprising as Richardson has some worthwhile credits to his name such as A Taste of Honey (1961) and Mademoiselle (1966) admittedly from two decades previously and in completely different styles (and he has had some stinkers, notably Tom Jones,in 1963 and Joseph Andrews in 1977.

Coming towards the end of his career (he would direct one more feature film Blue Sky in 1991 which earned an Oscar for Jessica Lange) The Hotel New Hampshire has an eye-catching cast but is narratively shapelss and too often awkwardly made with some terribly-executed sight gags and a sound design that beggars belief in such a top-drawer production.

Roughly speaking the film tells the story of the eccentric Berry family headed up by Beau Bridges and Lisa Banes (an actress who has had a solid career in television since) and with Jodie Foster as the eldest daughter. her brothers Frank (Paul McCrane) and John (Rob Lowe) as well as two younger siblings (Jennie Dundas and Seth Green who would go on to play Woody Allen’s young alter ego in Radio Days,1987,and a prolific career as a jobbing actor). Wallace Shawn, Wilford Brimley, Matthew Modine, Amanda Plummer, Anita Morris (probably best known for  her appearance in The Rolling Stones' 1984 music video ‘She Was Hot’) and Nastassia Kinski also appear in what is supposed to be (and presumably was in the novel) an absurdist tragic-comedy with a life-affirming message but in Richardson’s hands is a rambling hodgepodge of elements that wants to be hiply wacky but fails to be anything more than trying.

 

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