Movie: 'Blind Date' (1987)

What a curious movie. It doesn't feel like a movie that should fit into the usual sensibilities, but it does. Very much so, except for one particularly crude moment. Perhaps it's childhood familiarity coming into play, but it seems nice without being twee. Sincere without being arduous. It's incredible to think that Blake Edwards, who made the 'Richard Diamond, Private Detective' radio series in the 1950s, 'The Pink Panther' and 'A Short In The Dark' in the 1960s, as well as 'Peter Gunn', also made this twenty years later. That's history. He worked for a long, long time.

Let's not get carried away though, as this really is just silly fluff. However, why not have some silly fluff around the place from time to time. That's what 'Blind Date' is for in the grander scheme of things. Everyone needs some silly movies kicking around in their collections. They're more useful than emotional traumas and relationship melodramas.

What's 'Blind Date' about? It's a fairly standard romantic comedy that briefly goes berzerk, businessman Walter (Bruce Willis) is set up with blind date Tania (Kim Basinger) for an important business dinner, but she goes off the rails after some drinks, and causes chaos in his life in combination with her pursuing deranged ex-boyfriend David (John Larroquette). Ultimately, after some extreme destruction, they end up together, after some comedic sequences and the traditional separation, and all is well. There's nothing super-special, but it works very well at what it does, and marks what could have been for Bruce Willis, if he hadn't been sucked into idiotic action movie land. Oh, if only 'Moonlighting' had inspired his destiny instead of 'Die Hard'. If only.

When we originally watched 'Blind Date' here, we had no real idea who John Larroquette was. Now, in the context of having seen him in 'Night Court', and his guest shots in 'The West Wing' and a few other things, it's wonderful to see him appear here. Oh, Larroquette, the great underdog! He was also in 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', which will be popping up on a DVD review sometime in the future. He's good here, too, working with fairly standard material.

'Blind Date' is a fairly standard romantic comedy, but it zips along and oozes style when you least expect it. On the other hand, you might think it's terrible. Such is the way for these things.

O.