Cousins (1989)

 “You've got only one life to live. You can either make it chickenshit or chicken salad.”

            Before you go crazy and think “Ew is this about cousins falling in love with each other? That’s gross.” Yes, Cousins is about two cousins falling in love but they are only related by marriage. Maria Hardy’s (Isabella Rossellini) mother married Larry Kozinski’s (Ted Danson) uncle. Maria and Larry meet for the first time at the wedding.

            Maria is married to Tom (William Petersen) who is a bullshitter hot head car salesman who sleeps around with other women. Larry is married to Tish (Sean Young), a younger woman, and has a teenage son Mitch. During the wedding Tom and Tish take off somewhere and cannot be found leaving Maria and Larry to wait around for them. Tom sees what he believes his wife and her “cousin” flirting and that makes him extremely jealous. After that he goes around to all the women he was sleeping with and tells them he has to break it off.

            Over some time Maria and Larry become close. They enjoy each other’s company where they can each have an intelligent conversation and be the center of each other’s affections and attention. The more time they spend together though the more Tom and Tish become jealous. Tom and Tish both believe their significant others’ relationship is more than just a friendship.

            One day Larry and Maria run away to a cabin out by the water where their relationship becomes more than just a friendship. Maria realizes that she has not been paying attention to her daughter who has been acting out at school because of her lack of attention from her parents. She also wants to focus on Tom who she believes wanders all over the place because she does not pay attention to him either. Tom still fools around and even does so for a while with Tish.

            Maria and Larry finally see each other after a while at another wedding. Tom gets jealous yet again because he can still see his wife is not over another man. Larry comes up to Maria to ask her to dance and to also spend the rest of her life with him. Tom freaks out and tells her they are leaving and if she does not go with him than he is leaving her. Well Tom is a dick so of course Maria decides to dance with Larry.

            The cast was very good. What I want to know is how Isabella Rossellini does perfect. She is perfect. She was, and still is even at the age she is at now, totally gorgeous and she is a very good actress. I definitely watched this movie for Rossellini and in no way does she disappoint. Ted Danson was good he is just not an actor I think is that great. William Petersen will always and forever be Gil Grissom from CSI to me. It was so weird seeing him so young and play such a dick character! He did a great job though because I really hated his character! Sean Young was also very good. I actually felt bad for her character. Tish loved Larry but she was younger than him and acted out in a bit of a childish manner. Beau Bridges plays Larry’s dad. He was hilarious as the comic relief.

            Cousins was not a bad movie. There were parts that kind of dragged but for the most part I liked it. I liked seeing how there were two characters that made each other feel good. They both meant something to each other. My somewhat romantic side likes the idea that there are people that just make another person feel so great to be around. Also my somewhat romantic side would love to have a person in my life like that. The movie is a remake of a French film called Cousin cousine. I have definitely heard of the French version and would like to see it now since seeing it American remake. Cousins is a movie I would gladly sit through again.