Word: lilah
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...really purely funny in this movie about two would-be comedians struggling for recognition in a Manhattan night club. Even their jokes provoke more thought than laughter. Steven (Tom Hanks) is a medical school dropout whose comic routines are pointed reminiscences of his own failures as a student. Lilah (Sally Field), a New Jersey housewife with a yen for humor, fails miserably at first at the business of being funny. She resorts to time-worn Polish jokes--you know the type: "My husband's Polish. He gave me something long and hard when we got married...a last name." Understandably...
...Nothing is a joke to me. That's why I do stand-up comedy and you don't," Steven tells Lilah. And this paradoxical statement is the crux of the movie. Steven coaches Lilah in the subtleties of being funny--convincing her that if she's late getting home, it's funny...because the babysitter's name is Charley Manson...
...there is a line between humor and reality. Steven and Lilah approach that line from different sides, and as each comes closer to seeing it from the other's perspective, the bond between them grows. Steven has not told his father, a well-known doctor, that he has dropped out of med school. For weeks, this deception provides fodder for his nightly routines at the Gas Station, the comedy club where he is struggling to get his start. But the line is crossed when his father sees him at the club on a night when he'd hoped...
...Lilah at first sees her personal life as sacred and devoid of humor. But her earliest real success comes when Steven drags her into a spontaneous appearance at a club. Forced to go on without her prepared Polish jokes, she reaches into her own experiences and gets some real laughs. (Gazing dubiously at the gifts circulating at a bachelorette party in the audience, she quips, "I don't want to do anything intimate with anything that's got a 90-day warranty.") Later, at the Gas Station, her cracks about her own family and sex life bring down the house...
...overweight high school history teacher, endures hissing disdain from the audience--all for the sake of his family, his students and comedy. Romeo (Mark Rydell), the self-concerned club manager, tries to prod and cajole his comics to the top. These characters are left behind as Steven and Lilah rise closer to success, and we feel their disappointment and their dogged perseverance...