Flirting with Disaster - Disaster rarely comes alone

Movie
German title	Flirting with Disaster - Disaster rarely comes alone
Original title	Flirting with disaster
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1996
length	89 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	David O. Russell
script	David O. Russell
production	Dean Silvers , Bob Weinstein , Harvey Weinstein
music	Stephen Endelman
camera	Eric Alan Edwards
cut	Christopher Tellefsen
occupation
Ben Stiller : Mel Coplin Patricia Arquette : Nancy Téa Leoni : Tina Kalb Alan Alda : Richard Schlichting Mary Tyler Moore : Pearl Coplin George Segal : Ed Coplin Lily Tomlin : Mary Schlichting Josh Brolin : Tony Richard Jenkins : Paul Celia Weston : Valerie Swaney Glenn Fitzgerald : Lonnie Schlichting

Flirting with Disaster is a 1996 American comedy film directed by David O. Russell .

action

Entomologist Mel Coplin was adopted as a child. He and his wife Nancy have a four-month-old son who they refuse to be baptized until Mel finds his birth parents. The psychology student Tina Kalb helps with the research and wants to write her thesis on the search.

Mel, Nancy and Tina head to San Diego , where Mel's alleged mother, Valerie Swaney, lives. Mel gets to know her and his sisters. However, it turns out that he does not come from this family, as a data error by the adoption office brought the wrong family members together.

As a result of this mistake, the progress of the film increasingly turns out to be an odyssey for the main character, in which he threatens to lose his true self step by step. After a further detour, Mel finds his real parents, Mary and Richard Schlichting, in New Mexico , who - compared to the previously experienced inconveniences - turn out to be the real catastrophe from which only a headless escape is possible.

Reviews

The lexicon of international films describes the film as “an over-the-top comedy about ancestry and identity that vacillates between parody and satire”. However, the "contrast between restrained image design and content-related curiosity show [...] only in individual moments" is convincing.

Edward Guthmann wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that the comedy exceeded expectations and that the gags were enough for "three films". Roger Ebert praised Patricia Arquette's “subtle” play in the Chicago Sun-Times . The film has the elements that a screwball comedy needs.

Awards

• 1996: Nomination for the Casting Society of America Award
• 1997: Chlotrudis Award for Mary Tyler Moore
• 1997: Nomination for the GLAAD Media Award
• 1997: Independent Spirit Award nominations for David O. Russell (director, screenplay), Lily Tomlin and Richard Jenkins
• 1997: Nomination for the Golden Satellite Award for Dean Silvers

Remarks

The comedy was shot on a budget of about $ 7 million.

Web links

• Flirting with Disaster - A disaster of Hazzard in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Flirting with Disaster - A disaster of Hazzard at Rotten Tomatoes (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Flirting with Disaster - Disaster rarely comes alone. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .  
2. ↑ Edward Guthmann: 'Flirting Is No Disaster' / 'Spanking the Monkey' director follows with hilarious screwball farce . In: San Francisco Chronicle , March 29, 1996.
3. ^ Roger Ebert: Flirting with Disaster . In: Chicago Sun-Times , March 29, 1996.