Punchline (1988)

"I'll say anything to a woman and not mean it. I'll say I love her. I'll say she's beautiful. I'll say she's sexy. I don't mess around with funny."

I knew this one was going to be a thinker from the outset. Amazon (from whom we rented) described it thus: 

PUNCHLINE, the first major release to hit on this subculture of comedy clubs and struggling comedians, is both funny and sad. Sally Field, Tom Hanks and John Goodman star in this wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the world of stand-up comedy...where laughs are serious business.

 Writer David Seltzer penned the script in 1979, drawing on his own experiences in comedy clubs. When his initial choice for director dropped out, Seltzer abandoned the script to the Columbia Pictures vault, where it sat largely forgotten until producer Daniel Melnick came across it in a stack of other dust-gathering scripts and decided to revive it. Melnick initially intended the project to be a small-budget film, but the studio sent it to Sally Field, and she was so taken with the story and the characters that she not only agreed to star in the film, but also to finance it as an uncredited producer. Seltzer himself was placed in the director's chair.

Field took on the role of Lilah Krytsick, a New Jersey housewife who engages in clandestine meetings in diners to procure jokes in the same manner as more unsavory characters might get street drugs. Lilah dreams of a career as a stand-up comedienne, much to the chagrin of her husband John (John Goodman) and children. In testing her material at a New York comedy club appropriately dubbed The Gas Station, she meets Steven Gold (Hanks), a medical school washout in dire financial straits also looking to make his mark onstage. At first, Steven is dismissive of Lilah, but before long the two find kindred spirits in each other and Steven takes Lilah under his wing to teach her the finer points of the craft. The two grow close as John becomes increasingly frustrated at Lilah's frequent absences. 

The world has long held a fascination with the idea of the sad clown, an irresistible urge to marvel at the tarnished underside of the shiniest of coins. Part of what divides the critics in their reviews of this film is that it's hard to know what to make of a story that goes out of its way to make comedy unfunny. It's hard to know what to make of Lilah at the outset. We get very little exposition on her character, and at first the mousy, unassuming hausfrau doesn't strike me in the slightest as the sort of person to whom it would occur to try her hand at stand-up. This insight comes much later, as she reveals to Stephen that her friends and even her now-disapproving husband were the ones who encouraged her to attempt it. While Steven claims to see her potential from the beginning, it's not something that's really apparent to the rest of us, and perhaps the critics just got bored with waiting for her to hit her stride, which happens much later in the film.

Steven, on the other hand, is a natural at his craft. As the underachieving offspring of a demanding father, he's basically got all the tools in the How to Become the Class Clown starter kit. It's natural to think he'd rebel against authority and try to assuage his feelings of academic ineptitude by making a career of cracking wise. He's almost too predictable in his outer facade of arrogance. It doesn't take long for the chinks in his armor to start showing, though. Perhaps seeing in Lilah, a devoted wife and mother, the parental love he so sorely lacks, Steven develops romantic feelings toward her, and when she gently rebuffs him, he launches into a hysterics-fueled rendition of "Singin' in the Rain" on the glistening streets of New York, narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic.  It's a difficult scene to watch, and I almost felt like the worst kind of voyeur watching a man so thoroughly unraveling before my eyes. It's here that Hanks showcases a vulnerability that is at once tragic and beautiful, and despite the cinematic backdrop, Steven Gold gains an undeniable realism. While I fully expected him to have a nervous breakdown at this point, he's back treading the boards the very next night, because his tragedy fuels his comedy, and after so many rejections in his personal life, this is all he's got.

Family dynamics and star-crossed love aside, there are some great cameos here. In his quest to make his portrayal of the comedy world and all its inner workings as genuine as possible, Seltzer sought out real stand-up comics to fill the supporting roles. Damon Wayans and Taylor Negron make brief appearances, and we're treated to snippets of their acts interspersed between the drama playing out backstage. It's a much-needed palate cleanser that helps keep the heavier moments from feeling too dense. Not being privy to the industry myself, I can't say for sure, but I have to wonder if the reason the film got such a lukewarm reception was that it strove for realism and got it. The entire point behind visiting a comedy club is to get an unadulterated dose of laughter without having to worry about the more undesirable elements of everyday life. It's a little like wanting M&Ms and realizing you've got to filter through trail mix to get it. It may not have translated well onto the big screen for some, but for me, it was a solid showing, particularly for Hanks, who, while he had certainly shown range up to this point, achieved a funnier and sadder caliber of clown than I'd seen him do before.