Corrina, Corrina
First screened and reviewed in August 2024
Director: Jessie Nelson. Cast: Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Liotta, Tina Majorino, Erica Yohn, Wendy Crewdson, Don Ameche, Joan Cusack, Larry Miller, Jenifer Lewis, Lin Shaye. Screenplay: Jessie Nelson. VOR:②
The movie's modesty in theme and execution isn't necessarily a flaw, nor is it necessarily "easier" than didacticism. But it's no groundbreaker.
Some movies don't give you a lot to say. Sometimes they seem like they're playing Asteroids with your inclinations toward Sophisticated Critique. Corrina, Corrina is not moving mountains in any area of story or technique, but there's also something refreshing about its observations of human behavior, forsaking any of the deeper dives that it contentedly leaves to very different films. I sure miss the years in Whoopi Goldberg's career when she was licensed to play actual characters, even if plenty of Whoopi still came through. I sure enjoy Ray Liotta's performances even more—especially the gentler ones, like this—when his untimely death inspired so many past colleagues to tell such lovely stories about his kindness and his support for his peers. I sure remember that mid-90s period when tiny Tina Majorino consistently gave the best performance in her movies (see also When a Man Loves a Woman, Waterworld, etc.), but boy did Hollywood wring a lot of tears out of this little girl. She'd have to wait a whole decade till Napoleon Dynamite to get a good onscreen chuckle.
There's a short spurt about two-thirds of the way through when writer-director Jessie Nelson, working broadly from her own life story, starts tip-toeing into uglier conflicts and complicated emotional spaces. A boorish restaurant patron mistakes Goldberg's Corrina for a waitress. Liotta's Manny looks embarrassed but doesn't actually rebuke in any way the white woman who is pursuing him romantically, when she stops by the house and starts ordering "Katrina" around. The legendary Jenifer Lewis has some stern words for her sister about donating so much free time to her white employer and then seeming to side-step her way into a romantic relationship with him. The film bests several of its peers in refusing to present Jevina as a scold in the way of Corrina's happiness; we don't get a lot of time with her, but she's untitled to a point-of-view that she's more than earned.
All these scenes represent a real move upward from its broader and dopier moments, including an especially eye-rolly example of a trope I always hate: the farcical montage of a bunch of maniacal misfits for the job our hero or heroine clearly deserves. Plenty of Corrina, Corrina felt televisual in look and expression by the time it came out. But if the filmmaking and storytelling could use some more maturity, it's not a movie that cleans up all of its characters' messes, and it's a treat to watch two unlikely co-stars convey a growing bond, even if the film holds back from fully investing in a persuasive, three-dimensional love story. It feels very much like the version of their bonding that young Molly might have scripted, even in the direct aftermath of her own mother's death. Jessie Nelson basically was young Molly, so it's no surprise the film has that kind of child's-eye idealism of adult relationships, or at least of this relationship. One could imagine a smarter or subtler movie, but it's tougher to imagine a sweeter one that doesn't slide into the purely saccharine. Today, while folding laundry and catching up on chores, that's enough for me! Grade:C+
