It starts out innocently enough. Paul (Griffin Dunne) sits alone at a coffee shop reading Tropic of Cancer when he meets Marcy, a fellow Miller fan (played perfectly by Rosanna Arquette). “I love that book” she says with a half smile and recites a few lines from memory. A little small talk, and somehow, even with Paul’s lack of game he gets her number. After returning to his apartment, Paul breaks one of the cardinal rules of dating: Wait to call. Yet the call is only the beginning of a looonng (and entertaining) night of missteps and strange coincidences.
Somewhere between Midtown and Soho, Paul goes from awkward word processor (this job title sounds SO dated) to frustrated bar patron to hunted robbery suspect. It’s as if the whole city is in on the joke and Paul is the punch line. We’ve ALL had one of these nights. A night where you think “Seriously, this is happening?”; And it is. Martin Scorsese directs this New York centric black comedy of errors with cameos from Catherine O’Hara, Cheech and Chong, and my favorite “Perfect Stranger” Bronson Pinchot Balki (!!!)
For Kee and Todd <3
