It Takes Two Movie Review

My Chauffeur wasn't seen by too many people when it was released to theatres in 1986, but it introduced me to the films of director David Beaird, who seems attracted to conventional comedy plots, although he approaches them in a decidedly offbeat way. It Takes Two, for example, tells the old story of the kid who suffers from pre-wedding jitters and who pours all his anxieties into symbolic escape, in this case, an expensive Italian car and its braless saleswoman. There's an insistent theme that marriage will be the end of the line for him as a free spirit and that afterward his life will be an endless series of concessions to his wife and sacrifices to society. Although that theme isn't really explored in depth, it's always there, eroding whatever joy the kid allows himself to feel. His final surrender to convention is bathed in cuteness, but there's an underlying thud because he never has stood up for himself and his luck in finding others to help him obviously won't last forever. Except for the protagonist, most of the film's characters lack dimension and Beaird permits pointless racist “jokes” to gum up the uneven script. The cast of It Takes Two, especially Anthony Geary in a colorful featured role, is capable and the slight film does have some interesting moments.

1988 (PG-13) 79m/C George Newbern, Leslie Hope, Kimberly Foster, Barry Corbin, Anthony Geary; D: David Beaird; W: Thomas Szollosi, Richard Christian Matheson; C: Peter Deming; M: Carter Burwell. VHS, Closed Caption