The Fabulous Baker Boys

Steven Kloves, USA 1989, 114 mins

As everyone knows, everything in life changes at one point or another. Most of the time change goes unnoticed, but there are occasions that we try desperately to cling on to the past, and the change proves to be difficult. The Fabulous Baker Boys is an excellent cinematic representation of change and the problems it can create.

Jeff and Beau Bridges are the Fabulous Baker Boys', a night club piano duo that have been performing together since they were kids. Known in lounge rooms and concert halls across America, they were one of the famous duos on the scene.

But all things must change, and as their popularity drops they decide to take a singer on board for just a few performances, to add variety to their act. Michelle Pfeiffer plays the part of the blond seductive singer that certainly gives the boys act a new lease of life. Business starts to pick up, but this new lease of life proves to be fatal.

As a team Jeff and Beau Bridges perform with ease - they bring their real life brotherly relationship to the screen, close but with an underlying tension. Being brothers could have equally worked to their disadvantage, but their performance as the crazy duelling pianists really works.

Michelle Pfeiffer has never looked or sounded sexier in any of her other roles - this is definitely her best performance to date. Together they all lead the audience though the agony of change both as a group and as individuals.

A wonderfully realistic original drama, and another definite "must see"

Mark Bauer
EUFS Programme 1998-99

Two brothers (Beau and Jeff Bridges) who have been collaborating for years as a piano duo decide to give an end to their miserable and parochial career by hiring a singer (Michelle Pfeiffer) to join them in the act. Their eventual success as trio threatens to break down the solidarity of the group.

The film's success lies in the carefully depicted development of the trio's musical career from marginal night clubs to posh hotels and cheap charity campaigns but more importantly to three great performances. Beau Bridges is surprisingly amusing as the neurotic brother who suffers from an inferiority complex, Jeff Bridges is equally astounding as the almost wordless and introverted musician, while Michelle Pfeiffer delivers perhaps the best performance of her career so far, as the abrupt and independent singer. To the director's credit the film avoids clichd happy-ending resolutions and the sense of loss - regarding all three sides - comes as a natural consequence of the preceding events. With a soundtrack that provides ample pleasures and with some very enjoyable lines, The Fabulous Baker Boys looks likely to become a classic and it is Hollywood entertainment at its very best!

Review by Spiros Gangas
Taken from EUFS Programme 1993-94