Today’s quick review: The Out-of-Towners. Henry Clark (Steve Martin) and his wife Nancy (Goldie Hawn) leave Ohio and fly to New York for Henry’s job interview. But the trip goes awry when their flight is rerouted, their luggage is lost, and they are kicked out of their hotel by its fussy manager (John Cleese). Left broke and hungry on the streets of New York, Henry and Nancy must rely on each other to salvage what is left of the trip.
The Out-of-Towners is a comedy about an Ohio couple who receive a cold welcome from the city of New York. Henry and Nancy are at a transition point in their lives. With their kids grown and Henry out of a job, they have to figure out what they are going to do with the rest of their lives, something they have very different ideas about. Over the course of a nightmarish trip to New York, they rekindle their relationship.
The main failing of The Out-of-Towners is that it starts off slow. There is very little humor in the early stages of the movie, only setup laying out Henry and Nancy’s lives and the logistics of the trip. Once they leave for the trip, the humor picks up a little as things start to go wrong, but the jokes are tepid and the movie tries to cover for them with a bustling soundtrack.
The Out-of-Towners finally hits its stride later on, when enough has happened for it to loosen up. After Henry and Nancy have been robbed, chased, and hectored around town, they become desperate enough to make some bad decisions. Seeing them actually interacting with New York and with each other is a breath of fresh air after the movie’s stagnant start, and The Out-of-Towners coasts to a fun and reasonably satisfying finish.
How much you get out of The Out-of-Towners will depend on how patient you are and how much you enjoy marital humor, sarcasm, and characters making poor choices. Viewers who make it through the rocky start can expect a hefty dose of Steve Martin’s sarcasm, as well as a couple of big blow-ups later on. But for many viewers, the payoff will not be worth the investment, making The Out-of-Towners a mediocre pick overall.
For a better use of Steve Martin, try Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. For another Steve Martin comedy about marriage, fatherhood, and their perils, try Father of the Bride.
[5.5 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129280/). I give it a 6.0 for mediocre comedy that makes a poor first impression.