MIXED NUTS (1994)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Christmas movies can often be pleasing to the eyes and the ears, witness exhibit A, "It's a Wonderful Life." Sometimes, we can get serial-killer Christmas movies, witness exhibit B, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" and the underrated "Black Christmas." And other times, we can get whimsical, comical Yuletide examples like "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," "A Christmas Story" or "The Santa Clause." "Mixed Nuts" would fall in the latter category and it almost works, until it starts straining for laughs.
The setting is Venice Beach, California, which means no snowy landscapes. Just along the boardwalk is the office location of "Lifesavers," a volunteer hotline that helps suicidal, depressed or lonely callers. Steve Martin plays Philip, the manager who runs the non-profit hotline and his staff includes Mrs. Munchik (Madeleine Kahn), who deplores Philip's fruitcake gifts, and the overly sympathetic Miss Lonelyhearts character, Catherine (Rita Wilson). Unfortunately, Philip's organization will go down under unless he pays his overdue rent, thanks to an eviction notice from his landlord (Garry Shandling). Meanwhile, we have Mrs. Munchik stuck in an elevator, Catherine vying for Philip's love, an overbearing loser in a Santa suit (Anthony LaPaglia), bicyclists carrying Christmas trees, a lonely transvestite (Liev Schreiber), a pregnant, used-clothes owner (Juliette Lewis), and last, but not least, Adam Sandler as a ukelele-playing simpleton who writes for a living, that is, he writes on T-shirts. Oh, and dare I forget a walk-on performance by the very young Haley Joel Osment.
"Mixed Nuts" begins promisingly as an expose of the pros and cons of running a volunteer hotline, especially receiving calls from potential suicides (my favorite is Steven Wright, pointing a gun to his head while he stands in a phone booth). Writer-director Nora Ephron eschews the idea rather quickly by introducing too many characters, none half as interesting as Martin's Philip. The movie gets mired in unpleasantly oddball characters who may give you a migraine. One can marvel the days of Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder when subtlety and nuance dictated laughs more than anything. Here, Ephron chooses a slapstick approach but it is too high-pitched to score any laughs. The whole cast, except for Rita Wilson and Adam Sandler, overact and bicker and scream endlessly. After a while, it becomes monotonous. A good example is the last twenty minutes of the film, which depend on thickly syrupy music, a corpse, and loud renditions of "Deck the Halls" - so loud in fact that you'll wish Christmas never existed. I would have preferred "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," and at a slower, quieter pitch.
"Mixed Nuts" is just the latest example of a comedy with surefire trimmings that are severely squandered by too many bells and whistles. I am not a fan of slapstick, but I know tired black-comedy slapstick when I see it.
