I wonder if Chevy Chase, looking back on his legendary comedy career, would ever consider going back and not doing this movie. I sure hope we would, anyways. Modern Problems is a very misleading and confusing film that has been forgotten as a Chase "classic," and for good reason. There are many problems with this film, including countless audio problems, the treatment of the women in the story, and lazy writing.
The negatives of this film vastly outweigh the positives, and that does not bode well for post-SNL Chevy Chase, as this is one of his first feature films after his iconic skit series run. One of the smaller problems was with Chase's acting, as he might not have had training or necessarily been ready for his own film, because his acting was not the greatest. The pacing and performances throughout seemed very awkward and it was clear that the cast was thrown together and had not worked with each other before. While Chase's character was written poorly and very cheesy, so was most of the writing for the entire film. This film screamed "80's" in the most obnoxious ways, combining both mediocre design with stereotypical and offensive roles. The main problem with the writing was the way that women and people of color were handled. Granted, since this is a typical 80's film, one can not expect the best treatment of either, but the writing definitely did not do any justice. Women in the film, especially Chase's love interest Darcy, played by Patti D'Arbanville, were written so terribly and only used as plot devices to further Chase's story. Darcy was used as a sort of pawn in the weird, twisted love game that was occurring towards the beginning of the film. As for the minorities, the only one that was represented was the African-American woman, who, of course, is a maid moonlighting as a voodoo woman. These character choices did not make any sense for the story, and the setting and pacing was off just as much.
The film is titled Modern Problems, which by seeing its name, one might expect a light, funny film that centers around a dysfunctional couple living their peachy-ass, white lives. This film, on the other hand, turns from a romantic comedy to a wasted excuse for sci-fi comedy. The story begins in the inner city, revolving around clubs and apartments, which makes sense for the tone of the film, but then ends up being an exorcist-like vacation film in a beach house. The pacing and setting choices were not done well at all, and this movie is honestly a pathetic attempt at utilizing revolutionary film technology of the time just for kicks. Chase's characters having telekinetic powers made no sense for the story, and especially towards the end when he is apparently being exorcised by the voodoo maid. The writing was especially sloppy in the beach house act of the film, and it seemed like the writers were stumbling to find a conclusion that made any sense. The only decent aspect of this film was its editing in certain parts. One of the opening scenes in the restaurant with the eyes darting and the flirting couples caught my attention because it was edited very creatively with the music in the background. That may have been the only interesting aspect of this mess of a film.
Modern Problems has nothing to do with the modern problems of the 80's, but rather lackluster writing and ridiculous choices in all film departments. I sure am glad that Chevy Chase found his stride in film after this one, with classics such as the National Lampoon's Vacation series. If he hadn't, we may have had more films like this one, which is an awful idea to think about.
My Rating: ★★
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