Corrina, Corrina (12 August 1994)
directed by Jessie Nelson
starring Ray Liotta, Whoopi Goldberg, Tina Majorino, Erica Yohn, Don Ameche, Larry Miller, Joan Cusack, June C. Ellis, Jenifer Lewis, Harold Sylvester, Brent Spiner, Lynette Walden, Wendy Crewson, Steven Williams
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MPAA rating: Studio: New Line Cinema Script: Jessie Nelson Music: Rick Cox, Thomas Newman Running time: 115 minutes Tags: Comedy; death; Drama; father-daughter relationships; grief; racism; Romance Tactical strength: [7/10]
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for thematic material
Corrina, Corrina takes a tender and careful look at death, loss, and healing from the point of view of a seven-year-old girl Molly (Tina Majorino) in the 1950s. We first see Molly at her mother's wake. She sits under her dining room table and watches the adult's legs. Since her mother's death, Molly hasn't spoken and she remains silent as her grandmother (Erica Yohn), grandfather (Don Ameche), and father Manny (Ray Liotta) try to coax Molly out from under the table.
Manny works for an advertising agency writing jingles for Mr. Potato Head and Jell-O Instant Pudding. To return to work, Manny must hire a nanny, and we see a series of comedic interviews with completely inappropriate candidates -- reminiscent of a similar scene from Mrs. Doubtfire the year before. Manny settles on Jonesy (Joan Cusack), who seems qualified until she demonstrates a penchant for Manny's liquor cabinet. Manny finds a replacement in Corrina (Whoopi Goldberg), a black woman with whom Molly shows an immediate connection. The film implies that Corrina has a college education, but can't get a job as a writer for a music magazine. She continues to send articles, but receives rejection letters with the implication that she doesn't get published because of her race.
Corrina first develops a relationship with Molly. Through Corrina's friendship, Molly starts to talk again. With Molly talking, Manny feels a lot less stress, and he and Corrina start to have deeper discussions about Manny's wife, Corrina's former husband, and jazz. The relationship develops slowly but follows the tried-and-true formula for romantic comedies with a requisite spat, break up, and reunification. I think for the setting of the 1950s, Manny probably takes up a relationship with Corrina too easily. Today we can easily accept relationships between whites and blacks, but in the film's time frame such relationships received much more resistance. Both Manny's parents and Corrina's sister think the relationship shouldn't proceed, but Manny seems above such biases -- a plausible situation for today, but somewhat implausible for the 1950s.
The relationship between Manny and Corrina pretty much follows the traditional formula, but the script manages to set itself apart with Molly's character. Whenever Molly appears in a scene, we see things from her perspective. When Manny slips and says, "Listen to your mother" when referring to Corrina, we hear the slip and watch Molly smile with an understanding that Corrina will fill her mother's place. The adults don't even notice the slip and continue on with their conversation about jazz musicians. Tina Majorino plays Molly with such ease that you easily fall in love with Molly and hope for the quick resolution of Manny and Corrina's issues.
Unfortunately, Corrina, Corrina has several problems that took away from my overall enjoyment of the film. For a movie that takes its title from a song, I though the use of that song and other songs from the period really didn't strengthen the development of the plot. The songs do reinforce the time period of the setting but don't add any significant character developments. Also, at two places characters walk through broken glass, and we hear the subsequent crunching of the glass as characters walk away from Manny. To me if you duplicate a scene, you automatically ascribe symbolic meaning to those events. Such duplication begs comparison of the similarities and differences of the two events, but in Corrina, Corrina, I cannot see any real point in duplicating this event.
The script has some odd juxtapositions, too. In discussing his dead wife with Corrina, Manny says his wife didn't have a sense of humor, but in the next line he says she liked to laugh a lot. I certainly can imagine a odd person without a sense of humor that laughs, but these two lines dropped me right out of the film as I contemplated the possibility. At the very end when Manny goes to apologize to Corrina, it appears that Manny leaves Molly at his mother's house immediately after the wake for Manny's father. Almost no one would burden a recent widow with babysitting duties.
Goldberg, Liotta and Majorino do an excellent job portraying the birth of this new family unit that thumbs its nose at the accepted standards of its day. The movie does have a few distractions, but not enough to keep me from watching this tender movie about recovering from a loss.
Just as a side note, Don Ameche made his last film appearance here in Corrina, Corrina at age 85. He doesn't have a huge role, but you can see the ease at which he appears on screen and the masterful way he portrays his nearly speechless character.
