The Luckiest Man in the World Movie Review

Who could resist a movie premise like this one? A rich jerk named Sam is 10 minutes late for a plane that crashes on take-off with no survivors. At the airport, the victims’ heartbroken relatives scream at Sam: “Why you?” In the men's room, Sam ponders his escape from certain death and determines to be kinder to the people in his life. The only problem is, they're all used to Sam being a jerk and won't accept him any other way. Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Frank D. Gilroy directs his own screenplay for The Luckiest Man in the World, a wise and funny satire revolving around one creep's response to the randomnesss of fate. Philip Bosco is ideally cast as Sam, bringing a sharp comic bite to his unbearable character. The rest of the cast is populated with little-known but well-chosen New York actors and the production values are rock-bottom adequate. Gilroy's dialogue is so good and the direction is so on target that I can't help feeling that the whole point of The Luckiest Man in the World might have been buried under an expensive Hollywood budget and a distracting stellar lineup.

1989 82m/C Philip Bosco, Doris Belack, Joanne Camp, Matthew Gottlieb, Arthur French, Stan Lachow; D: Frank D. Gilroy; W: Frank D. Gilroy.