Which Movie To Make

A couple nights ago I watched another of my VHS tapes: the Betsy Russell-starring "Tomboy". I enjoyed it fairly well, but I found myself thinking throughout what I would have done differently, and there would have been lots. The movie is about a young woman who favors a lifestyle of sports and cars over dresses and romance, and so I thought this would be a poignant sort of comedy not unlike a "Pretty In Pink". It was not.

That movie was buried inside the move that I got, to be sure. The titular tomboy faintly eschews traditionally feminine pursuits and pursues her job as a mechanic with gusto. Her hero, a race car driver, just happens to be employed by (and friends with?) the local rich guy whose fancy car she's been working on. This launches her on an on again, off again romance with said driver which culminates in a head to head race with everything on the line.

If that sounds like a whole movie, you can be forgiven for thinking so. That amounts to maybe half the film's running time. It might be less. The purported main thrust of the film is held off until the latter stages of the movie thanks to a second movie threatening to take over completely. It stars the tomboys's best friend, who is a real opposite. The tomboy is a brunette, the friend is a blonde. The tomboy works on cars and wears jumpsuits, the friend pursues acting and is a clothes-horse.

Scene after scene is wholly devoted to investing in the friend, and the friend's story is a full on 80s sex comedy. She has raunchy dance numbers, fully-nude locker room run-ins with mustachioed gay men, wild, "Bachelor Party"-style party scenes and so many other comical, largely naked misadventures. She doesn't just have the sexy B story to the tomboy's A story: it's more like A1 and A2. Naturally, neither story gets a ton of oxygen. The tomboy especially suffers. Her story actually needs investment and payoff. The friend's story is secondary to the opportunities it presents for her and those around her to get naked.

Like I said, I enjoyed the movie fairly well, but I would have done a lot different. I might have recast the race car driver, who's handsome but boring. The tomboy, the friend and the conniving rich guy are fine (though the latter is too young). The main thing is deciding which movie you're making. Either the tomboy or the friend could be the lead, but they can't both be. Either movie is valid. The tomboy's story is more substantial, but the friend's story probably was more commercial at the time. You've got to pick one, or make two movies. I guess that's what I would have liked to have done.