Excess Baggage

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I know what you're thinking. Alicia Silverstone? And WHO? You've already decided that you hate this movie.

So had I. Then my sister and her boyfriend rented it as a joke. They then rented 6 more times. Still, I was reluctant to watch it. I mean, the tag line on the video was "A crash course in kidnapping, car theft and other rituals of dating." Gag. But finally, one night I walked in just as they were starting to watch. It was homework or Excess Baggage. I sat down.

I stayed sitting down. I watched it twice that night. I bought it the next weekend, to save money. I could tell this would be one I'd watch over and over and over. . .

Now, I must admit that I had never even heard of Benicio Del Toro. But this movie alone has made me a fan. You see, this movie has Character Development! Remember that? What they did in movies before they discovered Computer-Generated Special Effects? Ah, yes, you say. But what exactly do I mean by character development?

I mean that it wasn't glaringly obvious from the opening credits what was going to happen! I mean that you didn't know everything about the characters from the beginning! I mean that (gasp) I couldn't even predict who was the "love interest" in this movie! In fact, I kept waiting for some other guy to step in and fall in love with Emily (Alicia.) I didn't even like Vincent (Benicio) for the first quarter of the movie!

The first time we see Vincent, he is not the most desirable of men. He is a car thief who steals Emily's car. With her in the trunk. And I, personally, found him quite slimy. But, (now watch carefully) the character actually DEVELOPED into someone I could become quite infatuated with myself. See that? A character changed over the course of the movie! Wow! Haven't seen that in years, usually all we have now are one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. (See Switch the Star)

The same goes with Alicia. I enjoyed Clueless, but this is the first time she has been given a role to do something with. She finally gets to show off more than her face, and she succeeds admirably. She takes us with her on Emily's transformation from an obnoxious "poor little rich girl" to an interesting and unexpected end.

In short, this movie has been grossly underestimated. In part, I blame this on a poor marketing choice. As is witnessed by the video box, they were aiming this movie at the usual Alicia fan. Fortunately for us, Excess Baggage is far too mature a movie for the usual hormonal teen set, and we are the gainers by it. These two paint a compelling and quirky story, and make a good movie out of it. This is a good day for what movies are supposed to be about in the first place: characters, plot and acting. Not an exploding building or computer generated tornado in sight.