Our next group of “Filmed in Pittsburgh” movies features dedicated parents, grieving widows, a suddenly fortunate dock worker, and a sarcastic weather forecaster. Their characters are very different, but their struggles are entertaining and touching. All films are available in our DVD collection.
Lorenzo’s Oil (DVD-8118)
Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon (1992)
(Rated PG-13) Michaela (Sarandon) and Augusto (Nolte) Odone learn their adorable 7-year-old son has a rare, incurable disease, A.L.D. or Adrenoleukodystrophy. It’s an “orphan disease” that is “too small to be funded,” so they educate themselves and search for a remedy as their son’s debilitating symptoms worsen. They find one oil treatment helpful, but Augusto persuades his wife that they need to research further, even though it means less time with their dying son. At the library, in one scene I’m sure my colleagues can understand, Augusto babbles a stream of biological terms, and a librarian says calmly “What is it you’re looking for? Write it down for me.”
It’s a very moving story with a gorgeous classical soundtrack gently moving us through. Sarandon and Nolte take the movie far above average disease-of-the-week fare, into eloquently expressed shock, grief, and ragged persistence. “Do you ever think that all this struggle may have been for somebody else’s kid?” Augosto tearfully asks Michaela. “Yes, but I promised him his world would never be silent. He would never be alone,” she answers. The scenes with little Lorenzo in pain are gut-wrenching, but there’s a hopeful end, with pictures of many children who were helped by the Odone’s efforts.
Locations include the green marble lobby of Carnegie Music Hall, and a shot of the rust-colored USX Building. IMDB.com gives Carnegie Mellon as another location, but I couldn’t exactly place it. I heard that one cold day during filming, Sarandon visited a yarn shop in the South Side, her new baby in a stroller. A friend of mine, unimpressed by Sarandon’s fame, peeked into the stroller and lectured, “That baby needs a hat!” My friend, a true Pittsburgher, was adamant. Susan bought the hat.
The Cemetery Club (BRD-302)
Ellen Burstyn, Danny Aiello, Diane Ladd, Olympia Dukakis (1993)
(Rated PG-13) Three women friends lose their husbands, one after another, and support each other in their new lives as widows. I loved watching the three characters develop, with their different styles of grieving: Olympia Dukakis as Doris with her crabby, ritualistic mourning; Diane Ladd as Lucille, still angry at her husband’s infidelity; and Ellen Burstyn as Esther, quiet and shell-shocked at her sudden loss. “I hate it in there, with the mirrors covered up,” Esther says. “It’s shiva. You’re supposed to hate it,” Doris replies. Visiting their husbands’ graves brings the women closer, yet they trade barbs expertly. Make sure to watch the credits for additional dialogue.
Ivan Menchell’s play translated to screen as readily as Robert Harling’s “Steel Magnolias,” with similar humor, intelligence, and affection. This is one of the few movies that honestly shows love between folks over 50, with Lainie Kazan (one of my favorite actors) enthusiastically chasing the possibilities. Yet, she’s practical about falling in love. “At our age you don’t fall – you get hurt too easy.” Film locations include Allegheny Cemetery in Lawrenceville, Heinz Hall, the Pittsburgh Athletic Association Building across from the Cathedral of Learning, and the Westin William Penn Hotel. “Moskowitz Music” was Spratt’s Music near Carrick High School. At the ending, Ellen Burstyn and Danny Aiello tango out of the store and onto Brownsville Road.
Money for Nothing
John Cusack, Debi Mazar (1993)
(Rated R) Unemployed dock worker Joey Coyle finds 1.2 million that fell off an armored car, decides to take the money and run. The Washington Post review says it's “set in gritty, working-class Philadelphia (played by gritty, working-class Pittsburgh)” and I noticed Mellon Institute in Oakland, a few Downtown scenes, and probably Bloomfield. We see local newscaster Don Cannon, and other local actors Lenora Nemetz, Bingo O’Malley and Don Brockett.
It’s a funny heist movie, one where you want the hero to get away with it, but you don’t, with the question “What would you do?” answered by many characters along the way. James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Benicio del Toro have supporting roles, but my favorite was the philosophical, number-juggling local money launderer (Maury Chaykin). He gets to the heart of the drama: “The only real question about money is, do you possess it or does it possess you?”
Groundhog Day (DVD-8117)
Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell (1993)
(Rated PG) Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a snarky Pittsburgh weatherman reliving Feb. 2 over and over. People either like this movie or find it annoying; I’m in the “like” category. Bill Murray is one of those actors like Tomas Hayden Church and Michael Keaton whose mere physical presence makes me smile. Director Harold Ramis considered Tom Hanks for the lead, but Hanks said, “Everybody thinks of me as a good guy.” Ramis said Murray could be “an amazing combination of good and nasty,” and it does come as more of a surprise when Phil changes from drinking, hitting on women, stealing, and wrecking cars to performing random acts of kindness and playing Rachmaninoff on the piano. MacDowell as the naïve, optimistic news producer provides a lovely foil for Murray, and I loved when cameraman Chris Elliott makes fun of Phil’s arrogance (“Did he just call himself ‘the talent’?”) Local actor Don Brockett’s role as Grand Marshal of Groundhog Day is weirdly uncredited even though his voice is unmistakable.
This movie became a classic and a cultural reference, especially during the long Covid lockdown when everybody felt they were living the same day over and over again. Ramis said that yogis, rabbis, fundamentalist Christians, and psychiatrists found meaning in “Groundhog Day.” It is funny, and frustrating, to watch a character stuck in his own life and to wonder what combination of selflessness and kindness will finally break the spell.
There’s a beauty shot of the Point and our downtown as the weather van drives out of Pittsburgh. I assumed for years that shooting took place in Punxsutawney until I learned it was Woodstock, Illinois. I still want to spend time in this cute little town – but just for one day.
Reviewed by Library Specialist, Jan Hardy.