Up Close & Personal: A Review

UP CLOSE & PERSONAL

Jessic Savitch was a pioneer in television journalism for women. She was also a highly troubled woman. Her story has been told in the television film Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story. Savitch's story was also the basis for Up Close and Personal, allegedly. It is hard to think that a woman who struggled with chemical dependency and died in a car accident at age 36 was the same figure as that in Up Close and Personal. Glossy to the point of parody, Up Close and Personal may be now best remembered as being one of Diane Warren's seventeen (as of this writing) failed Best Original Song nominations.

Using the framing device of an interview that will feature in things later, we learn the story of Tally Atwater (Michelle Pfeiffer). She started as Sallyanne Atwater from Reno, with dreams of being a broadcast journalist. However, Sallyanne was poor, had no education beyond a few community college courses and no background to speak of. What she had was moxie. Sallyanne made a demo tape and sent it to every station that she could think of.

Only one station in Miami shows even a modicum of interest. With that, our plucky heroine heads off to WMIA to work under Warren Justice (Robert Redford). "Coming, sweetheart?", he tells Sally as she follows him around and learns the ropes of broadcast television news. Sally wants to be on camera, but for now, she serves coffee and answers phones. She finally gets her chance when Sally agrees to don a raincoat and be the station weathergirl. Unfortunately, she gets flustered, nervous and tongue-tied at her debut. She is so high-strung that she mumbles her own name as "Tally". Thus, Tally Atwater begins her climb to being Queen of Miami News.

Her on-air fight with experienced co-anchor Rob Sullivan (Scott Bryce) pushes her to seek greener pastures. That search leads to agent Bucky Terranova (Joe Mantegna). He gets Tally a new job in Philadelphia, which is a bigger market. Tally and Warren for their part finally indulge in the pleasures of the flesh, Because You Loved Me playing all around their romantic idyll. 

Now in Philly, Tally struggles with the new environment. She also struggles with Marcia McGrath (Stockard Channing). Marcia is the Queen of Philadelphia News, and she is not about to have a usurper taking her down. Tally is crumbling, so Warren sweeps in to save her and maintain being her mentor and lover. At last, Tally and Warren marry. Marcia, perhaps seeing the inevitable, moves on and Tally takes over. 

Things, however, come to a head when Tally and her loyal cameraman Ned (Glenn Plummer) go to a prison for a "day in the life" segment. Their interviewee is Fernando Buttanda (Raymond Cruz). He had been previously interviewed by Tally in Miami when his baby mama gave birth to the first baby born in the New Year. Fernando had also been the cause of the Tally/Rob on-air fight. During the recording, a prison riot breaks out, trapping Tally and Ned. Will Tally make it out alive? Will Warren end up living long enough to see Tally be interviewed Up Close and Personal?

Except for Warren's end not coming from suicide, Up Close & Personal might as well be a broadcast news remake of A Star is Born. I do not think that the film ends with her saying, "I am Mrs. Warren Justice", but I wouldn't have put it past screenwriters Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne to have at least thought to do so. The interview that opens and closes the film is, we find, is part of a Warren Justice tribute. In many ways, Up Close & Personal follows the A Star is Born plotline. Eager, young and inexperienced female finds an older, experienced male mentor. They fall in love. Her career rises. He dies.

Granted, Warren's career did not slump unlike the male protagonist in all four A Star is Born versions. Apart from that though, both films veer pretty close to being the same story. We even get Michelle Pfeiffer sing, belting out The Impossible Dream at a high school football field to an amused Warren. As someone who unironically loves Grease 2, I do not object.

Up Close & Personal has almost nothing to make anyone think that it was even "suggested by Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch". In real life, it was Jessica Savitch that met an untimely and tragic end. Here, it is Warren who meets a safely distant end.

I do not mind sappy stories. I mind weak sappy stories. Michelle Pfieffer and Robert Redford are very pretty people. They are also twenty-two years apart in age (Redford was 60 and Pfieffer 38 at the time). I figure audiences at the time did not mind seeing them as a romantic couple. I found the idea that Tally would be enthralled with Warren a bit ludicrous. 

I will say that Michelle Pfieffer came out best given the material she had to work with. She brought a believability to Tally's hesitancy and unsure manner. I do object to how Tally was made into such a klutz that she literally could not pronounce her own name when the camera light hit her. I can also object that, for someone who prided herself on being bilingual, she made a ghastly mistake. When interviewing Fernando, she tells him "I'm short on practice" in Spanish when downplaying her language skills. She says, "Me falta practica". It should be pronounced "Meh falta practica" as the Spanish "E" is what in English would be a short E sound (as in "Bed" or "Red"). 

My guess is that Pfieffer and director Jon Avent read the word which is spelled "me" and pronounced it as they would in English for "myself". In Up Close & Personal, she pronounces it as "me", which is wrong. It is surprising that no one caught that. I figure people were too wrapped up in how beautiful our lovers were. Yet, I digress.

Michelle Pfieffer did well with what she had. Robert Redford frankly looked bored. For how much they were supposed to be in love, I did not see much if any chemistry between them. A particularly bad moment is when Warren goes to Reno to help Tally, who is there to help her sister Luanne (Deedee Pfieffer, Michelle's real-life sister). The drama, as played by Pfieffer and Redford and directed by Avent, was forced. It was like watching them rehearsing to learn their lines rather than being authentic.

Other elements, like Kate Nelligan as Joannan Kennelly, one of the ex-Mrs. Justice, felt added to the already punishing two-hour runtime. Joe Mantegna looked more amused than involved, as if he figured Up Close & Personal was not going to do much for him or his character. 

The big claim to fame that Up Close & Personal has is its love theme. Celine Dion sings Because You Loved Me during Tally and Warren's romantic interlude, which became a number one hit. The song is fine. It has stood the test of time. I am not a Celine Dion fan. However, I have to acknowledge that Because You Love Me works separate from Up Close & Personal. I think the lyrics are a bit grandiose for the story and the trysts the film sets it in. Overall, though, Because You Loved Me works well and I don't fault people for loving it so.

Up Close & Personal was a big hit, with audiences embracing its sappy manner. I found it long, slightly silly. The prison riot sequence looked tacked on to build suspense. It is a lovely coincidence how Fernando, the Florida prisoner whom Rob didn't want to give the layette to because of his background, ended up in a Pennsylvania prison. 

Other elements have not aged it well. One pitched story is how a "cross dresser" (their words) made it to the Miss Florida finals. The WMIA crew finds that story hilarious. Nowadays, that "cross dresser" would be considered a legitimate finalist. 

Up Close & Personal is longer than it needs to be. It is not well acted or written. It is a disservice to make Jessica Savitch's story into a sappy love story just because it stars two beautiful people. "I'm everything I am Because You Loved Me", Dion coos to us. What ultimately Up Close & Personal isn't is good, no matter how much it is loved. 

DECISION: C-