Suzette (Goldie Hawn) gets fired from Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles. She decides to go to Phoenix to reconnect with Lavinia Kingsley (Susan Sarandon) who used to be her best friend as "The Banger Sisters". On the way, she picks up peculiar writer Harry Plummer (Geoffrey Rush) who claims to be going to Phoenix to kill his father. Lavinia is now a conservative mother to valedictorian Hannah (Erika Christensen) and driving-impaired Ginger (Eva Amurri Martino) and wife to lawyer Raymond (Robin Thomas). Suzette is staying with Harry at a hotel when she encounters Hannah freaking out after dropping acid during prom. None of her family knows Vinnie's former wild life.
Hawn and Sarandon are good together. Rush and Hawn are even better together as opposites. The girls discovering their mother is compelling. It would be better to have them have more heart-to-heart scenes with Vinnie. A girls' sit-down could be a powerful emotional talk. This movie is much better than expected although my expectations were extremely low.
The Banger Sisters
2002
Action / Comedy / Drama
Plot summary
In West Hollywood, Suzette, now on the far side of middle age, has always been a party girl, leading a life solely for the here and now. When the here and now leads to her without a job, no money and thus no sense of whether her partying life has gotten her anywhere, she decides to go into her distant past to visit in Phoenix an old friend, Vinnie, who she has not seen or talked to in twenty years. In their shared past, Suzette and Vinnie were Los Angeles groupies coined the Banger Sisters for their penchant to sleep with any and all rock musicians who came through Southern California. Suzette does know however that Vinnie's life has changed, she married to Raymond, a lawyer who has political aspirations, the two who have two teenaged daughters. It is in part the reason she decides to visit now well off Vinnie, to see if she will lend her some money. Suzette reconsiders when she finds out just how far Vinnie has changed. She now goes by her full given name Lavinia, and is not only the model of conservatism and respectability, but will go to extreme lengths to control this respectable agenda, which probably does not include a friend from their wild past. Suzette guesses that Vinnie's family may not know about her past life. If Suzette does decide to see Vinnie, she may upset Vinnie's apple cart for good or bad. Suzette's life is also mutually affected by Harry Plummer, a man she picks picks up on the way to Phoenix. With an extreme case of OCD, fifty year old Harry is failed Hollywood screenwriter who is returning to his hometown of Phoenix to conclude some business regarding what he considers his failed life.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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much better than expected
Some People Never Change, Others Repress
In Los Angeles, when the bartender Suzette (Goldie Hawn) is fired from the club where she works, she decides to travel to Phoenix and visit her friend and also former groupie of twenty years ago Vinnie (Susan Sarandon) to borrow some money. While on the road, she runs out of gas and without any money, she accepts to bring the stressed loser writer Harry Plummer (Geoffrey Rush) and in return he would pay for the gasoline. When she meets her old friend, now Mrs. Lavinia Kingsley, she finds a very conservative and traditional housewife, married with the successful lawyer Raymond Kingsley (Robin Thomas) and mother of two complicated teenagers, Hanna and Ginger. Their interaction along a few days improves their lives.
"The Banger Sisters" has a good premise, that some people never change while others repress their feelings, but it is badly executed. The idea of how people change their behavior when raise a family could be deeply developed based on the past of the two "banger sisters", but the way the forgotten and unknown past of Vinnie is disclosed to her family is absolute shallow and without any purpose. I believe Bob Dolman was lazy or afraid to shift to a profound drama, and preferred the easiest and most superficial way to make the confrontation between two exaggerated sides: the one who lives in the past and the other that does not use her experience to improve her relationship with her daughters and husband. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Doidas Demais" ("Too Crazies")
Just because Goldie and Susan have aged, it doesn't mean that they don't still have it!
Suzette (Goldie Hawn) and Lavinia (Susan Sarandon) used to be groupies with the Doors, but they've since parted ways: Suzette still acts like a groupie, Lavinia lives a laid-back existence in the suburbs. That is, until Suzette decides to come visit Lavinia. Then, all bets are off. Big time.
If absolutely nothing else, "The Banger Sisters" shows that Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon still have the talent that they always had (of course, neither one ever lost talent). Geoffrey Rush has a great supporting role as uptight Harry Plummer, with some strange plans.
I gotta say, autumn 2002 put an interesting spin on chick flicks, with "The Banger Sisters", "Far from Heaven" and "The Hours".