No doubt, it seemed like a clever idea, but styling a Jerry Lee Lewis bio-pic into a cotton-candied GREASE knock-off limits writer/director Jim McBride’s options & payoff. He might be filming a literary conceit. And concentrating on the child bride scandal that stymied Lewis’s top-of-the-charts breakout leaves little room to see how his square-peg-in-a-round-hole Honky-tonk Rock & Roll fit into the rebellious ‘50s music scene. Dennis Quaid, in his hot-bod phase but keeping his ass covered (rare at the time!), has all the ingredients to play Lewis, but never quite convinces lip-synching Jerry Lee’s smash vocals. He’s better at percussive keyboard dives, but guys up nearly every line as if this were sketch comedy. Like the film as a whole, it’s entertaining, but played in ‘Quotation Marks.’ And if Alec Baldwin sports an iffy accent as Lewis’s preacher/cousin Jimmy Swaggart, the rest of the cast hits closer to the mark. Especially 19 year-old Winonna Ryder as the 13 yr-old cousin Lewis marries. (Everyone’s a cousin in this story.)
DOUBLE-BILL: Two from 1978: Try not to cringe comparing film to memory in GREASE; or go for the neatly handled BUDDY HOLLY STORY.
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