Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a comedy written produced and directed by John Hughes, photography by Don Peterman and music by Ira Newborn. Steve Martin and John Candy perfectly fit the starring roles of and irritable businessman trying to get home for thanksgiving dinner (Steve Martin) and a chatty, boisterous, loud shower-ring salesman (John Candy). They both play the part so well and the acting is appropriate. Of course their two paths cross and Neal (Steve Martin) is unhappy to say the least, to find himself in a common struggle with Del (John Candy) to get to Chicago. Somehow there’s only one room at a hotel, and so begins their epic journey home together, actually painful to watch the two converge endlessly on the way in to worse situation after worse, seemingly a combination of the Christmas Vacation and Tommy Boy.
While the storyline is entertaining, it is by no means practical or believable; two strangers share a bed, a plane, a car etc…not likely. However this seems to add to the humor as the situations become so appallingly awkward they’re hilarious. As the situations are a bit exaggerated, the dialogue is as well, yet it’s a little more believable. Neal explodes from the oddness of Del and the situations they’re put together in which is reasonable, however the resolution isn’t…watch to see… A possible them could be some cliché such as make the most of the situation, however Neal and Del certainly do not.
Putting aside the outlandish plot, the set and costumes are well done, the costumes especially and they show the main characters true colors. Also the actor’s body language and the filming techniques used on them helps to emphasize this. A lot of close-ups are used to express the drama in facial expressions as well as show how close the two characters really are for most of the film. As the film cut to different shots, it was apparent how much effort was put into the sound editing to emphasize certain diagetic sounds and amplify these with non-diagetics.
Admittedly the film was put together rather well, however getting into my personal opinion I doubt I would recommend it because of firstly the predictability of the plot, and secondly its somewhat lacking in plot on the whole as so many turns for the worst are taken, it’s a little painful and after a point, less and less enjoyable. As this may not be the best note to end on I have a joke…
"I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later."
While the storyline is entertaining, it is by no means practical or believable; two strangers share a bed, a plane, a car etc…not likely. However this seems to add to the humor as the situations become so appallingly awkward they’re hilarious. As the situations are a bit exaggerated, the dialogue is as well, yet it’s a little more believable. Neal explodes from the oddness of Del and the situations they’re put together in which is reasonable, however the resolution isn’t…watch to see… A possible them could be some cliché such as make the most of the situation, however Neal and Del certainly do not.
Putting aside the outlandish plot, the set and costumes are well done, the costumes especially and they show the main characters true colors. Also the actor’s body language and the filming techniques used on them helps to emphasize this. A lot of close-ups are used to express the drama in facial expressions as well as show how close the two characters really are for most of the film. As the film cut to different shots, it was apparent how much effort was put into the sound editing to emphasize certain diagetic sounds and amplify these with non-diagetics.
Admittedly the film was put together rather well, however getting into my personal opinion I doubt I would recommend it because of firstly the predictability of the plot, and secondly its somewhat lacking in plot on the whole as so many turns for the worst are taken, it’s a little painful and after a point, less and less enjoyable. As this may not be the best note to end on I have a joke…
"I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later."
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