The traveling comedy is nothing new. The genre has won Oscars and has been critically panned. Actors have had their careers defined by appearing in the right one while others have seen their careers implode for being in the wrong one. Tackling this genre is a tightrope walk and it’s perfectly reasonable to suspect that director John Hughes (known mostly for his coming-of-age, high school-centric films) might stumble in making a comedy about grown-ups. Hughes is on his game here, though, and hit this one out of the park.
All Neal Page (Steve Martin) wants to do is get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving. Getting there from New York City, however, proves to be a difficult task. Neal is thwarted two-fold every step of the way. Not only is he beset by just about every type of travel delay possible, but he continually crosses paths with Del Griffith, an obnoxious traveling salesman played by John Candy. Neither one a fan of the other, Neal and Del become reluctant travel companions on a cross-country trip neither one will soon forget.
It’s a good thing this film is a comedy, otherwise it would be the worst possible publicity for all segments of the travel industry except for boats. But the best humor always contains a kernel of truth. While I myself have the fortune of never being caught up in airplane or train traffic delays (a by-product of limited travel in my lifetime), millions of people know what these hold-ups are like. Similarly, everyone knows what it’s like to be in close proximity to someone who annoys them.
Neither one of these situations is likely to be consistently funny, but Hughes knows his comedy pretty well and seamlessly blends the two together. This shouldn’t come as a surprise though, because Hughes also wrote the family road trip comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation. He just gets the writing and directing credit this time around. You can feel Hughes’s presence behind the camera, especially when it comes to the heartwarming moments where everyone sees eye to eye and begrudgingly puts aside their differences. That’s a Hughesian staple that cannot be avoided when he is at the helm.
Unlike other films of his, Planes, Trains and Automobiles does not suffer because of these ‘aw shucks’ moments. This is entirely due to the performances of Martin and Candy. Who among you doesn’t think Steve Martin is the quintessential comedy straight man? He’s a little bit timid but assertive when he needs to be- just like the average American. John Candy is the exact opposite. He’s best when playing characters on the fringe of normal. His bubbly personality makes him almost automatically funny and his sense of comedic timing is one of the all-time best.
My only quibble with this film is a scene where Martin’s character finally takes his frustration out on a rental car clerk, dropping a deluge of F-bombs. While there is some other coarse language here and there, the F-word is absent from the rest of the film and feels completely out of place and unnecessary. What starts out as a shocking but slightly amusing rant degrades into a mean-spirited tirade that creates a vacuum of positive comedic energy. It takes a few minutes for the film to rebound from this, which is detrimental to the cause of any comedy.
That one scene aside, Planes, Trains and Automobiles nails it. Hughes takes very real travel scenarios and ratchets up the absurdity with Candy’s stellar work. Martin’s reactions never seek to out-do his co-star and fall into the realm of the believably outlandish. That’s what comedy is all about- not so much the craziness of the situation but the reactions to that craziness. The precise execution of this comedic law is why this film is a resounding success.
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