Main Cast: Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In this satirical comedy, Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) has a beautiful wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette), and a four-month old son, and on the surface his life is good. But something's been troubling him: Mel knows he was adopted, and he can't resolve his issues with the mother who gave him away years ago, much to the annoyance of his adoptive parents (George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore). Mel decides it's time he met his birth parents and resolved his feelings once and for all, and Tina (Tea Leoni), a psychology student, has offered to tag along to capture the event on video for a research project. But after a few minutes with Mel's "real" mother, they discover that a mistake has been made and they've been directed to the wrong person. A second meeting, this time with Mel's supposed dad, also turns out to be a mistake, and it's quite some time before Mel, Nancy, and Tina are finally face to face with Mel's biological parents -- a pair of burned-out hippies (played by Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin) who support themselves by dealing blotter acid daubed onto pictures of Ronald Reagan. It doesn't help that Mel finds himself attracted to the very leggy Tina, or that Nancy's head is turned by a bisexual ATF agent (Josh Brolin). Writer/director David O. Russell previously made a splash with his independent debut feature, 1994's Spanking the Monkey. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Flirting With Disaster combines a satirical tendency to play with broad character types -- the overbearing Jewish mother, the fastidious homosexual, the neurotic career woman, the conservative Texan -- with a razor sharp eye for absurd situations and a wonderful attention to the nuances of dialogue. The result is a winning comedy that subverts as many stereotypes as it upholds, one that keeps its jokes rooted to its characters' inner lives even as it indulges in frequently hilarious set-ups and pratfalls. The wonderful performances are too numerous to mention, but old pros Mary Tyler Moore, Alan Alda, and Lily Tomlin head the list -- Tomlin for playing wonderfully to type and the other two for subverting their supremely nice images. (An infamous scene of Moore flashing her black brassiere at the camera gave the sitcom goddess cachet with a whole new audience in the '90s.) As for the leads, Ben Stiller plays his typically self-involved everyman as capably as ever, while Patricia Arquette, as his sweetly grounded wife, and Tea Leoni, as the svelte psych student who comes between them, provide low-key comic genius. Factor in Josh Brolin's best performance to date, as an armpit-licking novelist/federal agent, and it becomes clear that precocious second-time writer/director David O. Russell is as good with actors as he is with jokes and dialogue. Flirting With Disaster may not break taboos like Russell's debut, Spanking the Monkey, but its hilarious send-ups of everything from hippie survivors to gay marriage proves the director can put a distinctive stamp on even a relatively mainstream comedy. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Josh Brolin - Tony; Richard Jenkins - Paul; David Patrick Kelly - Fritz Boudreau; Tony Kruk - Detective; John Ford Noonan - Mitch; Suzanne Snyder - Alternative Wife; Celia Weston - Valerie Swaney; Glenn Fitzgerald - Lonnie Schlicting; Nadia Dajani - Jill; Shawn Michael Howard - Roger; Don Creech - Cop #1; Clarke Bittner - Cop #2; Jonathan Teague Cook - Sheriff; Cynthia Lamontagne - Sandra; Beth Ostrosky - Jane; Charlet Oberly - B&B Lady; Steve Moreno - Deputy; Tori Davis - Flight Attendant
Credit
Judy Rhee - Art Director, Christopher Goode - Associate Producer, Lowell Jacobs - Boom Operator, David Diamond - Boom Operator, Risa Bramon Garcia - Casting, Ellen Parks - Casting, Kerry Orent - Co-producer, Ellen Lutter - Costume Designer, David Wechsler - First Assistant Director, Todd Pfeiffer - First Assistant Director, Marco Londoner - First Assistant Director, Jolyon Handler - First Assistant Director, Sheila Waldron - First Assistant Director, Scott K. Coder - First Assistant Director, Jeremy Slutskin - First Assistant Director, Alan Steinman - First Assistant Director, Kent Johnson - First Assistant Director, David O. Russell - Director, Christopher Tellefsen - Editor, Bob Weinstein - Executive Producer, Harvey Weinstein - Executive Producer, Trea Hoving - Executive Producer, Wayne Herndon - Hair Styles, Eddy Collyns - Location Manager, Amanda Gill - Location Manager, Stephen Endelman - Composer (Music Score), Bonnie Greenberg - Musical Direction/Supervision, Stephen Endelman - Songwriter, Lori Hicks - Makeup, Kevin Thompson - Production Designer, Eric Alan Edwards - Cinematographer, Dean Silvers - Producer, Ford Wheeler - Set Designer, Rolf Pardula - Sound/Sound Designer, Wendy Hedin - Sound/Sound Designer, Stuart Emanuel - Sound Editor, Joyce R. Korbin - Stunts, Eric Brown - Stunts, Victoria McGarry - Unit Production Manager, Julie Duvic - Unit Production Manager, David O. Russell - Screenwriter, Amanda Slater - Production Assistant, Rob Harris - Unit Publicist, Lou Iocca - Additional Editing, Richard Rutkowski - First Assistant Camera, Scott Ramsey - Gaffer, William D. Moran - Grip, Gary Martone - Key Grip, George Larkin - Post Production Coordinator, Alexis Arnold - Production Coordinator, Jeanne Brennan - Production Coordinator, Andy Lassman - Properties Master, Julie Oppenheimer - Script Supervisor, Jude Gorjanc - Second Assistant Director, Barry Wetcher - Still Photographer, James Hammer - Assistant Costumer Designer, Christine M. Guararra - Assistant Hair, Andrew Saxe - Assistant Location Manager, Mark Schwentner - Best Boy Electric, Pedro Hernández - Best Boy Grip, Michael Shore - Dialogue Editor, Misako Shimizu - First Assistant Editor, Arthur Schlenger - First Assistant Editor, Brian Vancho - Foley Artist, George A. Lara - Foley Artist, Yvette Nabel - Foley Artist, William Grant - Leadman, Tim Metzger - Leadman, Keith Mosca - Leadman, Sarah Nicholson - Post Production Assistant, Margo Myers - Production Accountant, Jana Ludwigova - Second Second Assistant Director, Jeffrey Rollins - Set Dresser, Eric M. Metzger - Set Dresser, Kenny Mason - Transportation Coordinator, Susan Block - Set Decorator, Ivor Shier - Pilot
Mel Coplin and his wife, Nancy, live in New York, near Mel's neurotic, Jewish, adoptive parents, Ed and Pearl Coplin. Mel and Nancy have just had their first child, and they refuse to name their son until Mel can discover the identity of his biological parents. After an adoption agency employee locates his biological mother's name in a database, Mel decides to meet her personally.
Tina, the sexy but highly incompetent adoption agency employee, decides to accompany Mel, Nancy, and the newborn on a trip to San Diego to meet Mel's biological mother. The trip, of course, does not go as planned, and ends up becoming a tour of the United States.
First, Mel is introduced to Valerie, a blond Scandinavian woman with Confederate roots whose twin daughters are at least six inches taller than Mel. They quickly realize that Valerie is not Mel's biological mother, and Tina scrambles to get the correct information from the agency database. Meanwhile, Nancy becomes jealous as Tina and Mel begin to flirt.
Next, the group heads to rural Michigan with the hope of meeting the man whose name appears as the person who delivered infant Mel to the adoption agency. The man, Fritz Boudreau, turns out to be a trucker with a violent streak. However, when he discovers that Mel might be his son, he becomes instantly friendly and lets Mel drive his semi-trailer truck, which Mel immediately crashes into a Post Office building.
This leads to a run-in with two ATF agents, Tony and Paul, who are gay and in a relationship with each other. It is discovered that Tony and Nancy went to high school together. Charges are dismissed, and Fritz Boudreau tells Mel that he is not Mel's father, but only handled Mel's adoption because Mel's biological parents were incapacitated. Tina locates the current address of Mel's biological parents, which turns out to be in rural New Mexico. Tony and Paul surprise everyone by deciding to tag along on the trip.
While Mel and Tina become close, Nancy finds herself flirting with Tony, who returns the compliment, causing friction. The trip through rural New Mexico is fraught with more problems, so the whole crowd descends on the front porch of Mel's true biological parents, Richard and Mary Schlichting, to stay the night. While Richard and Mary are more than welcoming, Mel's biological brother Lonnie is overly rude and jealous. It is during dinner that Mel discovers that Richard and Mary had to let Mel be adopted because they were in jail for making and distributing LSD in the late 1960s. Not only that, but Richard and Mary continue to manufacture LSD, as becomes apparent when Lonnie, in an attempt to dose Mel with acid at dinner, accidentally doses Paul, the ATF agent.
In his drugged state Paul tries to arrest Richard and Mary but Lonnie knocks him out with a frying pan. They attempt to escape and decide to take Mel's car, hiding their supply of acid in the trunk. Mel's adoptive parents arrive but then change their minds and decide to leave, taking the wrong car. When they change their minds again and make a blind U-turn, the two families crash. Mel's adoptive parents are arrested while his biological parents escape to Mexico.
Not realizing what has happened Mel recounts the stories from dinner to Nancy and they agree to name the baby Garcia. The next day Paul explains the situation and is able to get Mel's parents released, and they are happy and reassured to hear Mel call them his parents. A montage of their relationships continues over the credits. They all still have their troubles but Mel and Nancy are happy together.
