Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Throw Momma from the Train Blu-ray Movie Review

How Far Can a Writer Be Pushed?

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 17, 2011

Movies about writers getting their work done are a cinematic bore; there's nothing visually interesting about someone scribbling on paper or tapping at a keyboard. But a blocked writer is (you'll pardon the phrase) a different story. There are infinite possibilities in a writer's efforts to avoid the recrimination of the empty page or a screen that stares back reproachfully saying, "So? Whaddaya got?" (And yes, I'm all too familiar with the question.) For a fine example of how to express this nauseating sensation in visual terms, check out the montage of jumpcuts with which Danny DeVito opens his directorial debut, Throw Momma from the Train.

Throw Momma is the story of two aspiring writers, Larry Donner and Owen Lift, each of whom is blocked as a result of a woman in his life. Stu Silver's inventive script directly references Strangers on a Train, which inspires Owen with the mad idea that the two sufferers should replicate that film's "criss-cross" exchange of murders (which didn't work out so well the first time). But DeVito and Silver weren't trying for suspense. They were aiming for the madcap atmosphere of something like Arsenic and Old Lace, only darker -- and they got it, thanks in no small part to Anne Ramsay's one-of-a-kind, Oscar-nominated performance as Owen's mother, a harpy so fearsome that even Norman Bates would have run screaming in terror.

Teacher and student

Poor Larry Donner (Billy Crystal). He poured his heart and soul into a first novel, only to have his conniving ex-wife Margaret (Kate Mulgrew) steal the manuscript and pass it off as her own. Now she has the bestseller instead of Larry, and he has to watch her collect the accolades and appear on Oprah while he struggles to write something new. Even Larry's agent, Joel (a cameo by Rob Reiner), is tired of waiting for Larry to resume being productive, and he tells Larry good-bye. It seems Joel's agency has merged with one of the big shops, which has just signed Margaret as a client. (And that helps explain why Joel isn't more aggressively fighting on Larry's behalf to establish authorship. Don't rock the boat, especially if your new masters own a piece of it.) So Larry scrapes by teaching creative writing at a local community college, where the students are a motley crew (to put it mildly). When he's not there, he obsesses and rants about Margaret to the point where the few friends he has left, like his neighbor, Lester (Branford Marsalis), can barely stand to be around him, and his new girlfriend, Beth (Brazil's Kim Greist), is ready to write him off. Worst of all, he can't make it to the end of the new book's opening sentence.

Poor Owen Lift (DeVito). He desperately wants to write but hasn't the aptitude. A student in Larry's class, Owen's idea of a murder "mystery" is a three-page story with two characters where one kills the other. Still, it's a wonder that Owen gets anything written at all, because he lives with his elderly Momma (Ramsay), a cantankerous harridan who never gives him a moment's peace. When she isn't demanding to be waited on or accusing him of trying to get rid of her, Momma lectures Owen that he's fat, stupid and will never amount to anything. It's no surprise that Owen's fantasies sometimes turn to matricide, and lately the fantasies are threatening to become reality.

With the social inappropriateness of someone who's never had much of an outside life, Owen stalks Larry for writing advice, and Larry finally tells him to go study Hitchcock films for guidance on such elementary matters as motive and suspense. Unfortunately for Larry, Owen sees Strangers on a Train and gets inspired about something else. Knowing of Larry's fixation on his ex-wife (as does anyone who spends any time with Larry), Owen decides to apply the same "murder swap" methodology to their current predicaments. Margaret Donner now lives in Hawaii; so Owen hops a plane, and soon enough there are reports that the newly famous author is missing and presumed dead. The local police come looking for Larry, but Owen offers to hide him at his place, whereupon he announces to Larry that it's his turn: time to kill Momma!

A darkly farcical comedy like Throw Momma is a tricky concoction, and it requires just the right balance of elements to keep the absurd plot, grotesque villainesses and spineless protagonists from becoming tiresome. That DeVito achieved the mixture so successfully can be attributed to numerous elements, of which several stand out. Chief among them are the lead performances. Ramsay's memorable Momma is suitably complemented by DeVito's Owen and Crystal's Larry. Both actors were playing against type, with DeVito reversing the overt aggression he'd perfected in Taxi, Romancing the Stone and Ruthless People and Crystal being passive instead of active, as he usually was in his comedy routines on SNL and in films like Running Scared.

Then there's the strong supporting cast, which helps create a world in which this band of lunatics can credibly exist. The members of Larry's class, for example, are a vivid collection of eccentrics that includes Mr. Pinsky, whose idea of a good novel is a coffee table book with pictures of women with whom he wants to have sex. With classmates like these, Owen fits right in.

Finally, there are the freakish camera angles, vertiginous overhead shots and off-kilter framings that cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld devised with his endless taste for the bizarre. DeVito clearly let Sonnenfeld run wild in a way that wouldn't be seen again until Wild Wild West, but here there was a clear story that was a perfect match for Sonnenfeld's cockeyed sensibilities, and DeVito had final cut. In its own strange way, Throw Momma is one of the most visually distinctive comedies of the Eighties (which, for a film with few obvious visual effects, is impressive).

Throw Momma from the Train Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray does well by Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography, with minor caveats. Sonnenfeld seems to have gone for a just-too-bright, slightly overexposed look, so that even darker scenes show everything. It's as if Larry and Owen are forever having their failures and shortcomings brought into the light. Detail is generally very good, but can sometimes be overwhelmed by a rough, contrasty look that, as far as I can tell, is part of the original photography. The image is usually free of obvious grain, which is typical of Sonnenfeld's work as a DP. The single biggest negative is that the source material has a bit more dirt and print damage than one would expect to see in a feature from this era. It's not so much that it's seriously distracting, but it's enough to warrant comment.

The color pallette is muted in Larry's and Owen's worlds, because their lives are drab, but the world brightens in Hawaii or other locales where people are having fun, like Joel's office or (briefly) Franklin's apartment. The Blu-ray conveys these shifts accurately.

As is almost always the case with films where titles have been optically superimposed over the film image, the opening sequence of Larry trying to write is somewhat grainier than the rest of the film. However, the degree of difference is substantially less than in many other MGM films I've reviewed recently, and some viewers may not even notice.

Throw Momma from the Train Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's original stereo track is presented in DTS lossless, and it sounds quite good. Dialogue is always clear, even when Momma is slurring her words (something that Anne Ramsay did rather artfully, turning the speech impediment caused by her throat cancer treatments into a characteristic of Momma's voice, and making sure that Momma's stream of invective remained bitterly intelligible). Sound effects like the pounding rain when Owen ambushes Larry at the laundromat or stalks Margaret on a boat in Hawaii have a pleasing surround presence when played through Prologic Iix decoding, and carefully mixed sound effects like the clang of Owen's frying pan connecting with Larry's forehead register forcefully. The score by David Newman occasionally hints at something Hitchcockian and suspenseful but wisely stays within the comedic terrain with which this member of the Newman clan is most familiar (his credits include the Bill and Ted movies, as well as numerous Eddie Murphy comedies and the classic sci-fi parody Galaxy Quest). The score is cleanly and effectively reproduced.

Throw Momma from the Train Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Once again, Fox has mastered an MGM disc with BD-Java, no advanced capabilities, no main menu and no ability to set bookmarks. Whoever is in charge of Fox's MGM mastering is either too ignorant or too lazy to address this poor design.

Throw Momma has had two prior releases on DVD, both of which contained deleted scenes and a trailer. As far I can tell, however, none of the featurettes on the Blu-ray have been previously released in region 1, even though the copyright dates are 2007. In that respect, they can be considered exclusive to Blu-ray.

• Crafting a Dark Comedy (SD; 1.85:1, enhanced; 17:11): This featurette explores the origins of the film through interviews with producer Larry Brezner and screenwriter Stu Silver. Both have detailed recall and speak eloquently, especially on the subject of Anne Ramsay, who was dying of throat cancer when she filmed Throw Momma and knew it was likely to be her last screen performance. The film's trailer is also included in the featurette, along with an explanation of how it was developed.



• Why Do You Hate Your Mother? (SD; 1.85:1, enhanced; 9:36): Various therapists, all of them women, discuss the psychological underpinnings of Larry's and Owen's predicaments and, to a lesser extent, Mama's. Psychobabble abounds.



• The Night Was . . . (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced; 3:56): A collage created from a group of unidentified amateur writers reading their compositions aloud. It appears that the budding authors were instructed to begin with the title phrase and proceed to "The End", but otherwise left free to choose their subject matter. A wide array of topics is represented.



• Deleted Scenes (SD; 1.85:1, enhanced; 1:20): There are four scenes, all of them short. None adds anything meaningful.



• Theatrical Trailer (SD; 1.33:1; 2:06): The trailer is unusual because it was composed of a single uncut scene from the film (the one that features a frying pan).

Throw Momma from the Train Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Throw Momma from the Train is unique, and it has aged well. It borrows an idea from Strangers on a Train, but in no way does it try to do the same thing -- which is the point of the joke in the current film Horrible Bosses when the doofus heroes conflate the two films. While the Blu-ray isn't perfect, it's a very good presentation of a film well worth your time and, especially at current prices, is highly recommended.