Sony Pictures
James L. Brooks followed up his award-winning Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News with 1994’s I’ll Do Anything.
Like those other two modern classics, he wrote this one as well as directed it. Unlike those two, I had zero memory of it before today, 32 years later. Unfortunately, there’s a reason for that.
I’ll Do Anything is a drama with comedic moments… or is it a comedy with dramatic moments?
It’s also several stories without much crossover.
It’s the story of a father who is unexpectedly given permanent custody of his fairly bratty pre-school daughter, that he has barely seen since she was a baby.
It’s also the story of a down-on-his-luck actor who gets a chance to audition for a big role.
Then there’s the story of the studio executive having a bit of a mid-life crisis and finding what he thinks is love. Belatedly, it all becomes the story of the little girl, who gets cast in a TV show. In other words, it’s schizophrenic.
Whittni Wright is that little girl, Jeannie, and she’s the closest thing to a centerpiece this film has. As child stars go, she gives a good performance but plays a largely unlikable character. She didn’t continue acting long. She and star Nick Nolte do show some sweet chemistry after a while. She even cutely sings a song over the closing credits written for the film by Carole King.
Nolte is one of those actors who could do all types of roles and it’s actually fun to see him playing a likable character here. He factors in to all of the various stories. He’s the clueless “new” father, the frustrated actor who takes a gig driving an executive around, and his character ultimately discovers what’s really important in life.
Brooks stacks the rest of the cast with familiar faces and stars of his earlier works. Seen for far too short a time as Jeannie’s mother is the delightful Tracey Ullman, whose now-classic TV series was created by…James L. Brooks. That show, of course, spun-off The Simpsons, and Marge Simpson herself, Julie Kavner, give what I thought to be the best performance in this film.
Albert Brooks, no relation to James L. as far as I know, was nonetheless a star of his Broadcast News a few years prior to this. Albert has long been on my shortlist as possibly the funniest man alive today. His distracted character here isn’t particularly funny nor very well-rounded.
Joely Richardson, who went to boarding school in England with a former co-worker of mine, tries hard to do an American accent and I think she mostly succeeds. Oddly, she’s made out to be a sympathetic character but then changes, in an unrealistic way.
Rosie O’Donnell, whom my wife met on stage in front of several hundred thousand people in D.C. back in 2000, shows up a couple times as a backstage beautician. Ken Page, Harry Shearer, and, of all people, Sir Ian McKellan, pop up just long enough to pop out. Woody Harrelson has a quick cameo, too, and under the radar you might even recognize the daughters of Connie Stevens and Eddie Fisher—sisters Tricia Leigh Fisher and Joely Fisher.
After watching I’ll Do Anything, I looked it up and saw where it was apparently intended to be a musical originally, with more songs by Carole King. I really have trouble seeing that as making it any better but it might explain the odd quality it seems to have now, without the songs. Some of the humor works, especially some of the Hollywood satirical stuff. Some of the drama and romance works as well. It’s just that it almost never works as if the sections are all in the same movie. It’s like they took the title literally and tried anything.
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