Raising Arizona (No Spoilers)

Fletch over at Blog Cabins decided to host Cagefest in (dis)honor of Nic Cage's new movie, Bangkok Dangerous. He called upon some friends to help him by taking the pro or con position on 10 of Mr. Cage's films. I took the pro on Raising Arizona: no one dared take the con. Here is my write-up:

My mom is really into the British author, Jasper Fforde. She says he is to literature what the Coen Brothers are to cinema: they look at the world sideways. I can’t think of a better way to describe the Coens, and one of the best examples of this assessment is their second film, Raising Arizona.

In what other world would the audience truly root for a couple who kidnaps a toddler? Only the Coens can draw out the compassion for such people. A convict falls for a cop, whom he gets to know better with each arrest after his many failed attempts of robbing convenience stores. She in turn falls for him too. Already the quirkiness begins. He finally gets out of prison and they get married. The next logical step is to have a baby, but as luck would have it they can’t. Adoption is out of the question due to his prior conviction record. What options are left? Steal a baby from the richest family in town that just had quintuplets, of course. Hilarity ensues.

Raising Arizona is full of scenarios that would never happen in reality, but that are done so well that to accept them in this strange world of H.I. and Ed is almost as easy as breathing. It all just flows brilliantly, from beginning to end, never once feeling contrived for oddball characters such as these. The actors flawlessly deliver the laughs through snappy dialogue, facial expressions and eccentric actions. Each performance contains the right amount of farce to keep you in stitches, but holds enough back to keep from dissolving into blatant slap-sticky rubbish.

And even through all the laughter, the characters of H.I. and Ed are so painfully tragic, that you can’t help but feel sorry for them. After all is said and done, when H.I. is having his final dream of sitting down with their children and grandchildren to a beautiful dinner, this is when you realize the true frailty to this married couple. All they wanted was a family and it really isn’t fair that “some should have so many, while others should have so few.” This very human quality in H.I. and Ed is the heartbreaking piece of reality that the Coens flipped sideways to create this exceptionally funny, and touching, cult classic.

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