PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986)

Peggy Sue Got Married is a film that may as yet be undiscovered by a younger generation of movie goers. This timelessly funny gem was directed by none other than Francis Ford Coppola and it stars Kathleen Turner, whom Californication fans may know as Sue Collini, but others will remember as the sultry mega-star in 80s films such as Romancing the Stone and The War of the Roses. In Peggy Sue Got Married, Turner plays a 40-ish woman who, at her 25th high school reunion, passes out and wakes up in her own past, circa 1960, when girls still wore poodle skirts and saddle shoes, and life seemed so charmingly simple. Turner, as Peggy Sue, effortlessly becomes a teenager again with the aid of a ponytail and a bounce in her walk, donning the clothing of her youth.

Both Turner and Cage wholly embody their characters, their performances simultaneously touching and hilariously funny. It is a sweet story of dreams fulfilled and lost. She relives some of those most crucial days - a teenager in everyone else's eyes, but from her own perspective every bit an adult, who drinks, smokes and is sexually experienced. All of this is disconcerting to her parents and to her dopey boyfriend Charlie, played by Coppola's nephew, Nicolas Cage. Both Turner and Cage wholly embody their characters, their performances simultaneously touching and hilariously funny. It is a sweet story of dreams fulfilled and lost. Even though Peggy Sue is determined not to marry Charlie all over again, cheater that he turned out to be, he is still irresistible to her. And so is a beatnik rebel named Michael Fitzsimmons, played by Kevin J. O'Connor. It is with this handsome poet that Peggy Sue is able to live out the youthful rebellion that she'd neglected in her real past as popular good girl and cheerleader. Some of the film's most tender moments surround Peggy Sue's grandparents, played by Maureen O'Sullivan and Leon Ames. They, of course, are long dead by the time she's an adult with kids of her own. But when she's a teenager again and hears her grandmother's voice on the phone, it tears her to pieces. It is her grandparents that she goes to for help at the end, confiding in them her situation. They believe her, or so they say, recognising how hard it is to live with the pressures of being a young woman with decisions to make about the future. It's a beautiful dream, imagined by writers Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner: to be able to be with the people you love the most though they are long since gone.
Coppola's only misstep as a director is casting his daughter Sophia as Peggy Sue's younger sister. She looks like the adopted Sicilian child in the midst of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed family. Still, we can imagine what a great start is was for her as a director, watching her dad in action. Other young actors like Jim Carrey, Joan Allen and Helen Hunt also got their start in this film. It is a hallmark of Coppola's genius that he recognises raw young talent. His films certainly stand the test of time and Peggy Sue Got Married is one more testament to that fact.

Movie reviewed by Georgina Young-Ellis

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