The Hotel New Hampshire *** (1984, Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster, Paul McCrane, Beau Bridges, Nastassja Kinski, Wallace Shawn, Wilford Brimley, Matthew Modine) – Classic Movie Review 8218

Director Tony Richardson’s 1984 The Hotel New Hampshire is an uneven but generally engaging version of the John Irving bestseller about a strange family and their adventures in America and Europe. It boasts a grand, suitably eccentric star cast, headed by Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster, Paul McCrane, Beau Bridges, Nastassja Kinski, Wallace Shawn, Wilford Brimley, and Matthew Modine.

The Hotel New Hampshire is one heck of a weird movie, but in a good way, overflowing with disturbingly oddball characters and ingredients, such as a lesbian dressed in a bear suit, a girl who grows attached to her rapist and a blind man called Freud (Wallace Shawn).

Some of this is very funny, and the film is always appealingly acted. So, even if not all the scenes come off, director Richardson is to be commended for a good level of success with this hard to handle material. Richardson also adapts the novel.

It is Seth Green’s debut, aged 10, as Egg Berry.

Also in the cast are Dorsey Wright, Lisa Banes, Jennie Dundas, Wally Aspell, Seth Green, Joely Richardson, Cali Timmins, Dorsey Wright, Richard Jutras, Johnny O’Neil, Charles Fournier and Anita Morris.

Foster said that this movie began the lowest point of her career, as she turned down roles in Splash! (1984), The Terminator (1984) and The Breakfast Club (1985). Her career recovered when Kim Basinger turned down the role of Sarah Tobias in The Accused (1988).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8218

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