The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Tony Richardson

Writers:

John Irving (novel)
Tony Richardson (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 March 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

If you experienced "The World According To Garp" and found it witty, delightful and totally unpredictable, then be happily surprised all over again when you join the fun and games that go on at the...Hotel New Hampshire

Plot:

The film talks about a family that weathers all sorts of disasters and keeps going in spite of it all...

Plot Keywords:

Literature | Bomb | First Sexual Experience | Bear Costume | Satire

Cast

Rob Lowe	...	John Berry
Jodie Foster	...	Frannie Berry
Paul McCrane	...	Frank
Beau Bridges	...	Mr. Win Berry
Lisa Banes	...	Mother
Jennifer Dundas	...	Lilly (as Jennie Dundas)
Seth Green	...	'Egg' Berry
Wally Aspell	...	Hotel Manager
Nastassja Kinski	...	Susie the Bear
Joely Richardson	...	Waitress
Wallace Shawn	...	Freud
Jobst Oriwol	...	German Man (as Jobst Oriwal)
Linda Clark	...	German Woman
Nicholas Podbrey	...	Boy with Rifle
Norris Domingue	...	High School Band Conductor

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

UK | Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Canada:R (Canadian Home Video rating) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | USA:R (Approved No. 27215) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Hudson, Québec, Canada

Company:

Woodfall Film Productions

Trivia:

Early in preproduction, the rock band Queen was asked to record some songs for the movie. They completed at least one song for the soundtrack, "Keep Passing The Open Windows", but the collaboration fell through. The finished film saw no Queen contribution, but that same year their album "The Works" (1984) did feature this song.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the award ceremony scene, numerous Austrian flags are show, but all are the civil/merchant version. As an official government function, the flags would have been the state flag (the government flag.) Unlike the United States, Austria and many other nations have multiple national flags for different purposes (government, civilian/merchant, military, on shore versus afloat, etc.) Austria's state flag bears the national coat of arms in the centre, overlapping into both of the red bars. The vertical version of the state flag has the coat of arms turned 90 degrees and placed within a shield. None of the flags in the scene bore the coat of arms.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Lilly: Life's a fairy tale.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Dawson's Creek: Hotel New Hampshire (#5.8)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Tears On My Pillow

Excellent movie

I just purchased this film on a Norwegian home video, and the cover bragged about the ratings it had gotten in Norwegian newspapers (5 out of 6 in the major papers). I thought this had to be a good movie, so I checked it out on this site, and was surprised to see how bad the reviews were here.

Now I've seen the film and I must say that I agree much more with the Norwegian reviewers than the users of this site (except those who gave it a good review). This movie is brilliant. Almost as good as The World According To Garp, which happens to be one of my favourite movies of all time.

The excellence of these films is that they're so focused on the main characters in the movie, that you really start to know them, and care about them. This is something you don't see in many movies. Here you follow the whole family from they're young 'till they're old, and you start understanding how they've become the way they are, and why they act the way they do.

As Garp, this movie is also very much focused on sex and love, and in the most bizarre ways possible. But so what? In the world there are many types of persons, why should a book or a movie just focus on the "normal" ones? The fact that the persons in these films are not "normal" makes them more acceptable and believable to the average viewer. "Normal" in movies normally means perfect, and very few persons are perfect... In Garp and New Hampshire the characters are not perfect, and that's what makes the films perfect...

The cast also does an excellent work with their characters, everybody is believable. And the director has done an excellent job pacing the film in a way that it doesn't move too fast, and it never bores you by going to slow.

All in all: an excellent movie that I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't yet been completely brainwashed by Hollywood's image of perfectionism. Almost as good as Garp. If you liked Garp, you'll love this one too. And vice versa. I give this film an 8 (almost 9) out of 10.