Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

How to Beat the High Cost of Living Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 2, 2015

If you’re old enough to immediately link the word “malaise” with the presidency of Jimmy Carter, you are probably similarly aware of the problems the American economy was facing as the seventies gave way to the eighties. How to Beat the High Cost of Living is a fitfully amusing paean to that troubled time, though it doesn’t really have the courage to completely confront the issues of the era, trading instead on stereotypes and a frenetic, quasi-farcical ambience to whip up whatever minimally comedic sensibility it’s able to. Set in the college town of Eugene, Oregon, How to Beat the High Cost of Living presents a far fetched tale of three housewives (the film rather unapologetically consigns women to traditional roles, despite passing attempts to give at least some of them “careers”) who decide to fight incipient inflation and the lack of available funds by engaging in a dangerous and risky heist caper. Never as funny as it should be, given the setup and the obvious talents of its focal trio of female stars, but similarly never as potent as it might have been had it really peeked beneath the shiny surface of supposedly “happy” suburban life, How to Beat the High Cost of Living is occasionally amusing, but decidedly middling, at least offering co-stars Jane Curtin and Susan St. James a “trial run” to develop their on screen chemistry which would soon prove so successful in the Kate and Allie situation comedy.

The choice of Eugene was evidently made because the town has a large mall which is adjacent to a river (the mighty Willamette), though I have to say from personal experience as someone who attempted to move to Eugene to go to school at around the time this film was shot, there was not much of a recession that was obvious there, at least as evidenced by the (completely non-scientific) fact that my girlfriend at the time and I were unable to find any available place to live due to the glut of students and other (supposedly gainfully employed) residents fighting over the few available houses and/or apartments. That probably tangential issue aside, How to Beat the High Cost of Living introduces a trio of Eugene denizens who are in fact having various money woes, and who come up with a fanciful way to solve their problems.

All three of the main female characters in How to Beat the High Cost of Living are shown to be dealing with various family dysfunctions which also play into their economic travails. Susan St. James perhaps slightly confusingly plays a woman named Jane, a divorcee involved in a post-marital relationship with Robert (Fred Willard) which hits a snag when Jane discovers she’s pregnant. Jane Curtin portrays Elaine, who early in the film discovers her husband is leaving her for that oft mentioned “younger woman,” leaving her badly in debt in the process. Jessica Lange (then the newcomer of the bunch) is the ostensibly employed Louise, operator of a not very successful antiques emporium whose failure plays into a kind of despicable gambit on the part of Louise’s husband Albert (Richard Benjamin) where he sues her for damages after the IRS questions the write offs on her business he's been claiming, something which places her, along with her friends, in the throes of economic calamity.

The fact that two of the three women experience financial woes due to actions of their husbands gives How to Beat the High Cost of Living a kind of peculiar retro aspect, something that clashes with its putatively “forward thinking” element of three women banding together to take control of their own fates. In fact the whole retro feeling of the film is more than apparent from the get go, in an animated opening credits sequence where busty (and hot pants clad) cartoon versions of the women repeatedly have their clothes sucked off of them, revealing their scanty underwear. Hadn’t Gloria Steinem and Ms. been around for quite a while by this time?

Had the film gone full on retro and exploited a classically farcical ambience (like Moliere era farce), it might have been able to work up more energy than is generally on display. Instead there’s a weirdly melancholic undercurrent to much of the film, one that informs the arc of Jane especially (her first scene finds her awakening to a radio news report on the woes of the late Carter administration, including an 18% inflation rate). While there’s a bit more fire in the belly in the story of Elaine, a woman who really wants revenge on her philandering husband, there’s sadness there, too, in the realization that this apparently decent woman has been left destitute by a hedonistic spouse. Only the semi-playful interrelationship between Louise and Albert ever manages to even occasionally escape this oppressive ambience.

The actual caper, which has the three supposedly “breaking into” a huge plexiglas money ball the local mall is using for a big marketing ploy, is silly and never complex enough to rise to typical levels of a caper or heist film. Even here the film is almost deliberately retro, offering a kind of I Love Lucy-esque formulation of frantic, frenetic women panicking through a series of misadventures. When poor Elaine has to resort to a striptease to distract shoppers and other passersby, it’s obvious that How to Beat the High Cost of Living is attempting to exploit a type of “feminine mystique” that is totally at odds not just with sixties era Betty Friedan but indeed with the general distaff consciousness of the early eighties.

How to Beat the High Cost of Living Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

How to Beat the High Cost of Living is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The first few minutes of the film, including the animated credits sequence and the first post-credits scene with Jane and Robert, are pretty rough looking, with low contrast, quite a bit of damage, and not much in the way of detail. Once the film cuts to the first scene between Louise and Albert, things improve markedly, though there are still manifold signs of age related wear and tear, as well as slight but noticeable fade that keeps things like flesh tones slightly on the ruddy side of things at times. Detail is acceptable throughout the presentation, but things are never overly sharp and well defined. Close-ups fare best, as should probably be expected, and in those moments elements like the natty pill on fabrics come through with generally commendable precision. Aside from some noticeable telecine wobble in the opening credits, there are no egregious problems with image stability. Finally, as is the case with Olive releases, there are no signs of any restorative efforts having been done, and similarly no signs of excessive digital intrusion or tweaking of the image harvest.

How to Beat the High Cost of Living Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

How to Beat the High Cost of Living features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix which more than capably supports the film's dialogue and its now kind of dated sounding score by the wonderful Patrick Williams. I've written about Williams' music in other reviews, but simply want to reiterate here what a generally superb composer and arranger he is (I heard him live when I was a kid when he was promoting what became his Grammy winning album "Threshold," and it was one of the most thrilling jazz performances of my youth). Working here with the incredible Hubert Laws and Earl Klugh, Williams crafts a kind of funky pop-jazz sound that is kind of a forerunner for what ultimately became known as smooth jazz. It's enjoyable, if lightweight, but it certainly anchors the film in its era. One way or the other, fidelity is excellent and there are no problems of any kind to report.

How to Beat the High Cost of Living Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 2:55)

How to Beat the High Cost of Living Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The three female stars of How to Beat the High Cost of Living are all enjoyable and accessible in this film, but lame screenwriting lets them down and there's simply no real energy to what should be the showcase of the film—the heist! Agreeable but rarely much more than that, How to Beat the High Cost of Living often plays like a made for television film, with a suitably lo-fi ambience and a generally unambitious approach. The film can't quite decide whether it wants to be an exposé of the "malaise" of the late Carter years or an out and out farce, and the disconnect is manifestly obvious in the fact that laughs are few and far between. Technical merits are good to excellent for those considering a purchase.