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Credits

Rated: ; Genre: Comedy; With: Alan Alda, Patricia Arquette, Tea Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal...

FLIRTING WITH DISASTER Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette (1996, Miramax, R, priced for rental) Uproariously funny from start to finish, this '90s screwball comedy deserves to find a wider audience on video than it did in theaters. Director David O. Russell's smart script follows a likable nudge (Stiller), who had been adopted as a baby, as he seeks his birth parents. His wife (Arquette) and an adoption agent (a wonderfully loopy Tea Leoni) tag along, while his adoptive parents (George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore, who's surprisingly convincing as a neurotic Jewish mother) get left behind. After amusing episodes involving car bumping and a dwarfish B&B owner, Flirting climaxes at the home of the oft-mispronounced Schlictings (Lily Tomlin, Alan Alda, and hilarious newcomer Glenn Fitzgerald as their son). A sexy farce and a fast-moving road movie, it's a trip you may want to take more than once. A -- William Stevenson


Posted Mar 28, 1997
 

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