Ever go to a movie and you think it’s going to be a certain type, and then somewhere in the middle of the film takes a sharp turn into something else? This is something which is more common than I realized, it happens a lot! For instance awhile back I talked about “Good Morning,Vietnam” before as being like that. Uh yeah, a comedy romp it is not! Another one I’ve talked before about is the Adam Sandler film “Click!”. It begins as a typical Sander comedy with low brow humor and all. Then suddenly it takes a left turn into a dark and somber drama. The tone shift in this is just unreal!
From what I can see there a lot of these but here are five examples that I saw. And much like with Click! the tonal shift was so jarring it almost gave me whiplash!
Baby Boom
Show of hands, who saw this horrible movie in the 80’s? I did sad to day. I love Diane Keaton, and she was fine in this, but the movie is just awful. The worst thing is how it changes course half way thru. This is a story about an uptight business woman who suddenly has to care for a baby. And hi jinks ensues. The usual cliche’s, she doesn’t like the baby but she grows attached yada yadda yadda. Problem is about half way through, that whole premise gets abandoned and it becomes about her quitting her job and retiring to the country where she makes her own baby food. Huh? When I saw this I was confused as hell!
By the was another baby movie, “Three Men and a Baby”, has a similar problem. It went back and forth between a plot about three bachelors caring for a baby to another plot about cocaine dealers. Really!
Switch
Anyone remember this one? At all? Switch starred Ellen Barkin and Jimmy Smits about a man who is reincarnated a woman. Why? It’s hard to explain it has to do with him learning about how awful he treated women and…it doesn’t matter really. Yeah we get the usual gags like her being unable to wear high heels (why do men in movies think women ONLY wear high heels?) but the idea of a man living in a woman’s body is basically abandoned when her best friend, Smits character, has sex with her and she accuses him of rape. Uh, what? Then she ends up pregnant from the encounter. And the ending is so sappy and dramatic it’s just surreal. Wasn’t this supposed to be a comedy? I hated this movie.
Santa Clause 3
Here’s a nice little example (yes I know it’s not Christmas yet). The movie is basically a kid’s movie, lacking all of the heart of the original two. Finally, and I mean finally, when Jack Frost gets his plan into motion he switches places with Scott Calvin. And when Scott appears as himself instead of Santa, we’ve basically entered a whole new movie! It feels like a more adult family movie and the whole tone has shifted. And it’s a good change too! For about ten minutes when the conflict is quickly resolved and we go back to the kiddie crap.
By the way do I even have to mention the whiplash in Bambi when Bambi’s mother is killed, and then suddenly we’re in a happy spring setting?
Hancock
I saw this and I still am not sure what to make of it. It starts about an anti-hero, Hancock has super powers but is a jerk. He is an alcoholic who doesn’t care at all about people. It’s a nice change of pace, seeing a jerk with super powers that recklessly causes damage and needs to be held accountable for causing damages. Problem is about half way through we met another person with super powers, and the movie changes gears to be a more typical superhero movie. Not a bad movie, very well casted, but it could have been a lot more.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Who’s seen this? If you haven’t, you really should. This kids movie starts off as a simple (and kind of boring) family movie about an inventor named Caractacus Potts with two kids who falls in love with a society girl. He has a silly car called Chitty Chity Bang Bang (those are the sounds it makes) who his kids love, but he doesn’t know how to buy it for them. So we see him use his wacky inventions to get the money to buy the car. When he does the all go off for a nice picnic on the beach. Nice and simple, right? Well where it goes….you’d never see coming. The father, two kids, and the society girl are on the beach. While there, Pirates attack! See, there’s this nasty Baron who wants to steal the car, and kidnaps Pott’s father mistakenly. Chitty Chitty suddenly sprouts wings to fly after them, only to land in a strange country without children. You see the Baroness hates them so they a creepy child catcher who kidnaps and imprisons kids. When Pott’s kids get tricked by the child catcher it’s up to Potts and his girl (Trudy) wih the help of a kind toy maker to save the kids, rescue his father (and the car helps of course), and free the land.
What? doesn’t that sounds like a normal progression of events? And folks, that doesn’t even cover half the oddness in this movie. And yes (SPOILERS) the whole Baron thing was just a story the father is telling at the beach-none of it happened. But man I did not know that when I first saw it and was totally thrown. Most movies would make that clearer but this kept it vague so rather than not care because you know it’s a story, you’re invested the whole way. It also inspired my imagination big time. This is a great movie and well worth a watch. And yes the car ends up flying in the end just to leave us confused. There are some great songs in this movie too.
As I said there are lots more of these, so if you can think of any movies that threw you with a crazy tonal shift comment and share below.
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