Lost in America

Albert Brooks' road movie, in which two Yupples (Brooks and Julie Hagerty) cash in their artfully constructed lives to take to the road and find themselves, only to realize that It Just Isn't Going To Work Out. It’s like “Easy Rider” of the 80's, and Brooks knows it; indeed, the earler picture is mentloned repeatedly, like some kind of a mantra. This is hardly vicious satire; the meovie doesn't bite, it: s more like being gummed to death. And Brooks stacks the deck against the couple--if the wife hadn't been a compulsive gambler and lost all their money, the life on the road might have been pretty good (though of course it's kind of a jag, since it's only the "nest egg" that would have made it tolerable for these corporate babies.). In the end, it may be kind of a downer message: you really can't change things, because trying to step out of the role you have is bound to end up in total disaster. But the picture doesn’t convince you of this so much as it bludgeons you into believeing it. The travesty of the new life is so ennervating that you can't heip but cheer when they "sell out" and go back to where they belong, not far from Bloomingdales. Can the leopard change his spots? Not according to Brooks, but in other hands the moral may hve been completely inverted. Still, an interesting picture, because the heart of it is an idea waiting to be exploned.