Stars and Bars – Der ganz normale amerikanische Wahnsinn (1988)

Stars and Bars – Der ganz normale amerikanische Wahnsinn: Directed by Pat O’Connor. With Daniel Day-Lewis, Harry Dean Stanton, Kent Broadhurst, Maury Chaykin. A British art expert travels across America in order to purchase a rare Renoir painting in the South but comes across some crazy characters in the process.

“It may be a far cry from classic screwball comedy, but even during its many forgettable moments this fish-out-of-water farce isnu0026#39;t a total write-off. Certainly thereu0026#39;s nothing in it to justify the cold-blooded lack of confidence that killed it at the Box Office: the throwaway release it received is usually reserved for lame dogs someone wants put out of misery, and in this case it worked.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAt least the film never pretends to be anything more than what it is: a self-consciously wacky social comedy with an outsideru0026#39;s exaggerated, broad-as-a-barn-door view of American manners, starring Daniel Day Lewis as a dapper English art appraiser who runs into an oddball collection of cartoon Confederate rebels while investigating a lost Renoir in backwoods Georgia. All the film needs is a laugh-track to become a respectable TV sitcom (a degenerate Beverly Hillbillies?), but director Pat Ou0026#39;Connor doesnu0026#39;t show much aptitude for low comedy, and the laughs collapse into a feeble slapstick conclusion, leaving the door wide open for a sequel which will never be made.”