Fools Rush In (1997)

Director:

Andy Tennant

Writers (WGA):

Joan Taylor (story) and
Katherine Reback (story) ...

Release Date:

14 February 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

What if finding the love of your life meant changing the life that you loved?

Plot:

After a one night stand with Isabel, Alex realizes that she is pregnant and they decide to get married. However, along with the marriage comes compromise of one's own cultural traditions.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Culture Clash | Elvis Presley | Mexican | Elvis

Awards:

2 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. July 26

9:40 AM

TBS

Cast

Matthew Perry	...	Alex Whitman
Salma Hayek	...	Isabel Fuentes Whitman
Jon Tenney	...	Jeff
Carlos Gómez	...	Chuy (as Carlos Gomez)
Tomas Milian	...	Tomas Fuentes
Siobhan Fallon	...	Lanie
John Bennett Perry	...	Richard Whitman
Stanley DeSantis	...	Judd Marshall
Suzanne Snyder	...	Cathy Stewart
Anne Betancourt	...	Amalia
Jill Clayburgh	...	Nan Whitman
Angelina Torres	...	Great Grandma (as Angelina Calderon Torres)
Debby Shively	...	Donna, Construction Secretary
Mark Adair-Rios	...	Juan Fuentes
Annie Combs	...	Dr. Lisa Barnes, OBGYN

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sensuality and brief language.

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS

Certification:

Finland:S | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Australia:M | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | France:U | Germany:6 | Netherlands:MG6 | Norway:7 | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #34795)

Filming Locations:

Crown Point, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The Elvis impersonator in the early wedding scene, Eddie Powers, works in Las Vegas as an Elvis impersonator and does gigs at such chapels as The Silver Bell Wedding Chapel.

Goofs:

Continuity: The amount of water in the glass when Isabel tells Alex that she is pregnant.

Quotes:

Tracey Burnham: Well nobody ever plans to end up in Vegas. You just do. Kinda sneaks up on you. But it is the fastest growing economy in the US, the economy is booming, business is growing, I'm up to my neck in paperwork. Oh, but frankly, it's not a whole lotta fun. Are you are whole lotta fun Alex?
Alex Whitman: Ah, Jeff said we might have some problems with our liquor license because of new zoning?
Tracey Burnham: Mmmm, I'll talk to the County Supervisor for you but if I were you I'd pay more attention to the ABC investigation. They're gonna ask you all kinds of personal questions. They'd like nothing more than to catch you with your pants down.

Movie Connections:

References The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Soundtrack:

Danke Schoen

Now this is what I call a `romantic comedy'

Sometimes the mood one is in at a given moment is just right for the film you are about to see. This, obviously, has its setbacks. One night you are just not in the mood, and you write a film off as trash; another night, in a more favourable frame of mind, you lap up a film just loving it. This is of course pre-emptive and subjective: but we are all human. We all have our foibles and manias. So if you forgive me for dismissing out of hand all those delightfully dreadful romantic comedies with Richard Gere or Hugh Grant, whoever the delicious young lady may be playing with them, without forgetting Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, as being pure unadulterated slush, we might meet on level terms and wade in where fools fear to tread.

I just love Salma Hayek.

She is not only superbly gorgeous to look at - those deep Mexican-Lebanese eyes just keep you enchanted throughout - but she is also pretty good at acting. That, together with a nicely-told story with intelligent directing and dialogues which do not fall flat on their face helps make `Fools Rush in' stand out above the rest of the ilk. Firstly the film does not try to be sickly funny. It does not make ireful bile rise into your throat. Perhaps Matthew Perry is not the exact partner for the role, but the chemistry between him and Salma Hayek seems to hold together fairly well. The story is also an indictment into situations which must be arising daily: especially in the United States of America where racial intolerance can become highly murky. A white New-Yorker falls in love with a Mexican girl. Well, if they are all like Salma Hayek, I would not be at all surprised. I would, too. But sociological barriers - in the Mexican family also, with a wonderful interpretation here by Angelina Calderón Torres - produce the logical but hypocritical obstacles which still persist in what for me should be classified as erstwhile societies.

A film I shall see again, which for me must be unique among films called romantic comedies. But there is just that something in the petite thirty-year-old Salma Hayek which lifts me heart and soul into clouds of surrealistic fantasy, that has me fascinated, enchanted.

Therefore any objective commenting on this film is out of the question for me. Tut, tut, my lad.