American Dreamer (film)

American Dreamer is a 1984 American film starring JoBeth Williams and Tom Conti. It was directed by Rick Rosenthal from a script by Ann Biderman, David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf.

An American housewife wins a trip to Paris in a mystery-writing contest. She loses her memory when she's hit by a car, and begins acting as if she were the female detective in her story.

Plot Summary

The movie opens with what looks like a stereotypical detective thriller scene. Beautiful & hardboiled detective "Rebecca Ryan" walks into a railroad car and in a few moments spots her target: a woman in one of the seats near the rear of the car. Rebecca walks up and pulls off her wig, revealing that the "woman" is a man in disguise. Rebecca then delivers the tag line: "Rebecca Ryan always gets her man."

At this point the fourth wall is apparently broken, as a voice over says, "No, that's not right." Two more replays, and eventually the voice is satisfied, and we fade to Cathy Palmer sitting at a typewriter, finishing up the story. She seals it in an envelope and sends it off.

Later, her husband, Kevin (James Staley), comes home and she tells him about entering a contest to write a short story following the "Rebecca Ryan" series of novels. Kevin is patronizing, telling her, "The important thing is, you're doing something you enjoy".

And then we see an envelope in the mail. She opens it and discovers she has won the contest, getting an all-expense trip to Paris for two, with an award ceremony and a chance to meet the author.

And Kevin tells her that he is just too busy to go to Paris (!) with her. He explains to her why she should logically and rationally decline the trip. She goes anyway. While she is sightseeing, her purse is snatched. She runs after the thief, into a street, where she is knocked down by a car driven by the Spanish Ambassador, Don Carlos (Jean Rougerie), and hits her head.

Cathy wakes up in a hospital bed, but has amnesia and thinks she is the fictional character, Rebecca Ryan (a sort of female James Bond). She "escapes" from the hospital but finds her borrowed clothing entirely unsuitable, so she goes on a shopping spree at several of Paris's top designer salons. At one point a clerk has doubts about her ability to pay, so he calls up the hotel she has given as her address. "Does Rebecca Ryan live there?" Cut to the hotel clerk, leaning on a desk next to a stack of Rebecca Ryan books, "You idiot, "everybody" knows that Rebecca Ryan lives here."

The rest of the movie is equally improbable.

"Rebecca" takes a taxi "home" to the hotel, goes up to the room where the novels say Rebecca lives, knocks on the door. The occupant, Alan McMann (Tom Conti), thinks she is the assistant he has engaged from an agency and tells her to do some clerical tasks. She pretty much ignores him and goes off on her own tangent. She thinks McMann is Rebecca's gay sidekick, Dmitri, so she has no qualms about undressing in front of him.

She goes through Alan's mail and finds an invitation to the Embassy ball. There, she challenges a group of Russian diplomats: "Rebecca Ryan can drink anyone under the table." She matches them shot for shot of vodka, and "all" of them wind up under the table singing something in Russian.

While there, she sees Victor Marchand (Giancarlo Giannini), the leader of the opposition party. Still drunk, she becomes convinced that there is a plot to kill him afoot, but assures him that Rebecca Ryan will protect him. She also gets into a conversation with Don Carlos, and quotes Nietsche to him, "What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger" (in flawless German).

Don Carlos looks stricken, and retreats to the men's room, where he pulls a code book out of his pocket and double-checks that phrase. It means, "Terminate yourself immediately". He pulls a hypodermic out of a hidden compartment in his shoe(!) and prepares to inject himself with whatever lethal concoction, but faints instead.

Alan is concerned, and follows Don Carlos in, finding him slumped on the floor unconscious.

Before leaving, "Rebecca" manages to unintentionally knock a glass of champagne all over Victor. This in spite of Alan's/Dmitri's warning that Victor is very important and powerful and she should stay away from him.

Things go downhill from there. Over the course of the movie, "Rebecca" manages to pursue Victor into the catacombs under the Pont Neuf, where he leans against a wall that turns out to be a door, and falls downstairs. And various other accidents while trying to escape from this apparent madwoman who keeps pursuing him. Among other things, "Rebecca" stage-whispers a warning to Victor right in the middle of a session of Parliament, causing him to completely lose the thread of the speech he is trying to make.

Then somebody takes a shot at "Rebecca" and Alan as they are leaving the hotel. Alan has a realization, "My God, somebody is trying to kill us." "Rebecca" pats him patronizingly and says, "Somebody is "always" trying to kill us, Dmitri." Alan takes her off to his mother's house in hopes of avoiding the assassins.

Alan's mother, Margaret McMann (Coral Browne) is the author of the Rebecca Ryan books. While there, "Rebecca" and Margaret have a spirited discussion about who the "real villain" is, with "Rebecca' talking about her current "case," while Margaret is talking about past books.

"Rebecca" and Alan end up in bed together. And outside the house we see a shadowy figure peeking through the windows. Then Kevin comes in, punches Alan in the mouth (for sleeping with his wife). Cathy looks at him, says, "Kevin?", and her memory comes back. She is a married woman, with two children. And she faints.

Cut to a hospital waiting room, with Kevin and Alan waiting. A nurse comes in and tells them Cathy wants to see Alan (which is a big shock to Kevin). She bids Alan goodbye, gets dressed, and goes off to the airport with Kevin. But when she gets to Passport Control, she suddenly realizes that she does not want to go home with Kevin. She turns around and goes back to the hotel. She meets Alan just outside and gives him a big hug.

Happy Ending.

Well, not exactly. A few seconds later a limousine pulls up, two men jump out and kidnap Cathy and Alan.

Next thing we know, they are hanging by their feet in a room in Victor's house. (By this time, Victor is wearing a neck brace, has one arm in a sling, and generally looking bunged up from the various accidents earlier in the movie.) Victor explains to themref|rule that he is running a drug-smuggling operation to help meet the cost of maintaining his ancestral mansion. He wants to know who told them about him. Alan tries telling the truth -- that Cathy had a bump on the head and made the whole thing up out of various books he had written -- but Victor is unconvinced. He leaves them hanging head down, saying that in 15 minutes the pain will have them ready to tell all.

This is a mistake, of course. Cathy and Alan manage to escape and get out a window. Victor and his minions pursue, and eventually they are cornered on the roof of his house. They grab hold of a crane (presumably used in some sort of restoration project) and swing out over the moat(!) that surrounds the house, then let go and fall.

Cut to a living room. Cathy and Alan are reading the manuscript of the Rebecca Ryan novel being written to Cathy's two children. They get to the end of the chapter, and pack the kids off to bed, in spite of demands to know "what happens next". (It turns out that the author is actually "Alan," he just had them published under his mother's name so people wouldn't know he writes trashy detective romance thrillers.)

"What "does" happen next," Alan asks.

"You remember," Cathy says.

"Oh... yes. But we can't write that...

They close for a kiss, and the credits roll.

It may be corny, but it's both funny and heartwarming.

External links

*imdb title|id=0086886|title=American Dreamer

Notes

It's a rule. The villain always has to pause to explain how much of a pain the hero is and how he plans to get rid of him.