Mannequin is a 1987 romantic comedy film, starring Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall, Meshach Taylor, James Spader, G. W. Bailey, and Estelle Getty. It was written and directed by Michael Gottlieb, and the original music score was composed by Sylvester Levay. It was followed by a sequel, Mannequin Two: On the Move, in 1991. The film was nominated for one Oscar for the Original Song category for "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now".[1]
Despite poor reviews, the film was a major commercial success and has since obtained cult status.
Plot summary
Jonathan Switcher (McCarthy) is a struggling artist who goes from one dead-end job to another. This all changes when he sees a mannequin (Cattrall) that he had created before. He finds work at the store displaying her and befriends a flamboyantly gay coworker named Hollywood Montrose (Taylor) while still managing a girlfriend, Roxie (Carole Davis). While having to dodge the store's stuffy vice president (Spader), who's also working with Illustra, and his dimwitted security guard (Bailey), the mannequin comes to life. The mannequin, "Emmy," was actually once Emahasure, a real-life woman from ancient Egypt. Her beauty, love and imagination inspire Switcher to become the best window dresser in town. Emmy and Jonathan have to fight through a lot, including the fact that she is alive only when just Jonathan can see her, which makes their relationship difficult. However when the other competing department store, Illustra, gets fewer and fewer customers due to the popularity of Jonathan's display windows, everything starts to change. They first try to persuade him, through Roxie, to work there and when that doesn't work the vice president and nutty security guard decide that they must steal the mannequin from the store. They end up having to steal all the mannequins since they couldn't identify Emmy from the others. When Jonathan finds out she is gone he must fight through security guards and machines to save her. When he finally saves her they both find out that because of their true love anything is possible, including a real live Emmy and a happy ever after.
The story has a subplot: in order to regain full status as a real life person, the mannequin must find true love. The film is an unacknowledged remake of the obscure 1948 film One Touch of Venus, starring Robert Walker and Ava Gardner.
Main cast
Filming locations
Portions of the film were shot in the Wanamaker's flagship store in Philadelphia, and in a Boscov's department store in the former Camp Hill Shopping Mall (now Camp Hill Shopping Center) near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Reception
The movie was publicly successful, grossing over $42 million. The film received negative reviews on its release. The film received "Two Thumbs Down" on Siskel & Ebert and The Movies. In his print review, Roger Ebert felt the film was "dead" and full of clichés, and awarded it a half star.[2] Rita Kempley of The Washington Post said that Mannequin is a movie made by, for and about dummies."[3] Janet Maslin of the The New York Times puts the blame on the writer/director: "As co-written and directed by Michael Gottlieb, Mannequin is a state-of-the-art showcase of perfunctory technique."[4]
Today, it is still considered to be of poor quality by major critics and has a score of 22% on Rotten Tomatoes.[5]
See also
References
External links
