Planes, Trains and Automobiles

 Year:  1987

Director:  John Hughes

Screenplay:  John Hughes

Starring:  Steve Martin, John Candy

Running Time:  92 minutes

Genre:  Comedy

Uptight advertising executive Neal Page (Martin) is desperate to get from his business meeting in New York City to spend Thanksgiving with his family in Chicago.  However, when his plane is diverted to Wichita, Kansas, Neal embarks on a race against time, packed with disasters and misadventures.  To make matters worse, he is in the company of good-natured, but very irritating, salesman Del Griffith (Candy).

Writer/director John Hughes made his name with teen films such as Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), and this was seen as something of a change of pace, but the plot and structure are fairly similar, in many ways, to National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), which Hughes wrote, and which also deals with a disastrous road trip.  The film starts off with a very realistic and relatable situation.  Steve Martin as Neal Page is desperate to get back to Chicago from New York, but the business meeting is running frustratingly long due to his indecisive client, then he has to get to the airport, but the streets of New York are chockablock with people trying to get away for their Thanksgiving weekends, and then when he finally does get on to the plane, which is delayed, he s downgraded from first class to coach, and has to sit next to overly friendly salesman Del Griffith, and the plane is diverted to Wichita due to a snow storm in Chicago.  Then the situations become ever more absurd and farcical as Neal desperately tries to get back to Chicago by any means necessary before Thanksgiving, which is three days away.  Also he is unable to shake off Del, who both helps and hinders his efforts.   This is a road movie and, like most road movies, is very episodic, but the jokes and comical situations come thick and fast, even if they don't always land, enough of them do to make it consistently funny.  Steve Martin and John Candy were both great comedians and they bounce off each other very well.  Martin has a fine line in seething, buttoned down frustration, and Candy, of course, is the chatty slob who is lovable, but who you know would drive you to distraction after awhile.  The film has it's silly moments, which don't really sit with the more realistic tone of the earlier scenes, but it still works, and the inevitable friendship that springs up between Martin and Candy is well drawn and quite believable.  While it may not be a classic, it is a fun comic romp.  Kevin Bacon has a cameo early in the film as a businessman racing Steve Martin for a taxi.  

Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles