Pity that Martin-Candy never teamed-up again after Planes, but John Hughes knew that John Candy alone could carry a film, as he did--with great support, however, from such as the little guy at right before his Home Alone juggernaut got cranked up--with Uncle Buck (1989). Candy was to play only one more notable lead-role, and do it well, in Only the Lonely, mentioned earlier.Writer-director Hughes borrowed a lot from his characterization of Del Griffith in the earlier movie, and here makes Buck Russell The Compleat Slacker for the ages. Del was at least minimally employed as an itinerant shower-ring (!) salesman. The unemployed Buck Russell hangs out at bowling alleys trolling for tips on the latest "fix-is-in" horse-race (he doesn't actually cheat--that's important for Hughes, I think--he just plays the cheaters). We are to believe that his shoo-in bets pay the rent on his shabby apartment and his shabbier life-style.
Uncle Buck Griffith is also borderline INSANE. Candy's trademark laugh can thus carry overtones of real menace here, which comes in handy when "parenting" his brother's kids for a week. Here's the hook: it turns out that his character has a strong sense of "family values" in spite of all this. One clue Hughes plants early on is actress Amy Madigan. Loyal, loving, level-headed owner of a tire-store, her character has been trying to wed/hire and legitimately spawn with the ne'er-do-well Buck without success for the past eight years! There's gotta be some good in him.
And he proves it when he is called upon in an emergency--all other candidates having been exhausted--to nanny a sullen/surly teenage niece who hates him at first sight, and her bright/cute single-digit brother and sister who fall in love with him immediately. These two are not your typical movie brats. They are among the best written and acted that I've ever seen. The little-girl-actress speaks the language of six-year-old cuddly-love to perfection, and Macaulay Culkin is great as the eight-year-old-who-never-stops-asking-questions. Here's the finale' of about 50 lines of Q & A:
--Are your my Dad's brother?
--What's your record for consecutive questions asked?
--Thirty-eight.
--I'm your Dad's brother all right.
--You have much more hair in your nose than my Dad.
--How nice of you to notice.
--I'm a kid. That's my job.
How right-on-key is that bit of Hughesian dialogue? "Thirty-eight" is just terrific ... and then the punchline. Another exchange involving the hormone-driven, fifteen-year-old niece and her predatory boyfriend provides us with Buck's secret child-control strategy:
--Are you crazy?
--I can be.
--You could have taken his head off!
--Yeah, but would he notice?
This impinges on the central plot-line of the movie. Whereas Planes was basically episodic, this film has a pretty-well-defined story-arc, an old-fashioned one at that: saving this young girl's virtue. Uncle Buck loves these kids, even the wayward niece, Tia, and somehow finds in his slacker-self an iron core of responsibility to keep them safe and on schedule, even if he has to get "crazy" to do it. (Can you think of anyone but Candy to play this role?) "I have my orders," he says to Tia after she refuses to be picked up from school (she'll get a ride from "friends"). Well, this is how he'll enforce those orders: "Stand me up today, and tomorrow I'll drive you to school in my robe and pajamas and WALK you to your first class ... four o'clock okay?" She doesn't stand him up.
It matters to us, though, that these threats remain just that. We can't really allow Uncle Buck to use his hatchet that "can circumcise a gnat" on "Bug" the boyfriend. Unbeknownst to Buck, his prophetic words alone, matched with Bug's subsequent behavior, are what saves the maiden in distress before the fact. Here was his brand of "moral suasion" before she sneaks out to, and abruptly out of, what was meant to become a "bed-and-breakfast" party:
--The guy's a predator and you're his prey.
--And how would you know?
--When I was his age I was zooming girls like you. Pretty face, good chip on your shoulder.
--I recommend you stay out of my personal life.
--Do your parents stay out of your personal life?
--They don't know of my personal life.
--Have they met twiddle-dink?
--His name is Bug.
--First or last?
The words stick, and she sees through the real Bug just in time to avoid infestation. But Buck doesn't know that, and so he careers his flatulent Mercury across town to the party-site as soon as he sees that Tia is unaccounted for. This allows Hughes to give us some Candy-style craziness after all. He arrives at the party armed with a huge power-drill and his maniacal laugh ... bedroom keyhole demolished (you see this through Bug's terrified POV) ... mis-identifies new girl under the covers ... picks up authentic Tia on road walking home ... Bug hog-tied in trunk ... released humiliated. Great fun.
Happy ending. But as much or more for Candy's character than it is for the niece and her family. There's more bildungsroman here than in any other of Hughes' efforts. Along with his wards, who are already getting along better at the end, Buck grows up. He's ready now for Amy Madigan and kids and a steady job installing tires to support them. He's proved his true worth as a family guy. We know it's a Hughes film, and we've come to expect a happy ending. But when first-time viewed, and our disbelief properly suspended, the movie is not that predictable. Neither is Planes. Unlike his earlier strictly teen-fare, these two offerings give us some urgent, life-altering situations that could end up very badly indeed.
I've spent so much time on Uncle Buck because I feel I'm writing somewhat "uphill." Critics loved Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but HATED Uncle Buck ... almost unanimously (some just didn't like it). A bad rap. There are some flaws: the horny widow next door, for example. She's important for a plot-turn, but her extravagant sexual displays seem to come from some other planet entirely, and come off more disgusting than funny. Hughes blinked on that one. The movie overall though--casting, story-arc, dialogue--represents some of his finest work, in my opinion. And a fine legacy for John Candy, too, at his comic best. (more)
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