The Honeymooners

My elderly father and I remember watching The Honeymooners on TV before there were reruns. Today this series is probably still in reruns in the middle of the night somewhere, but now a movie has been made that is somewhat based on the original Jimmy Gleason show, which co-starred Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph.

Strangely, in these times when you'd think we are much less constrained than we were back then, this movie lacks much of the edge of the TV series. In particular, the signature phrase of the series, which was "One of these days...POW! Right in the kisser!" is totally missing. I guess we can't even hint at domestic abuse today, even if, as in the TV series, you knew for a fact (as did Gleason's wife) that he was just a loudmouth, and that his threats were absolutely idle.

Cedric the Entertainers stars in Gleason's role as Ralph Kramden, the dreamer with the big mouth who is married to the frustrated Alice (played by the ethereally beautiful Gabrielle Union. As beautiful as Union is, Audrey Meadows, who was beautiful herself, never appeared beautiful in the series. Mostly, she had a bandana in her hair as she worked hard washing clothes and cooking for Ralph. In this film, Alice is a bright, independent woman, and their home, while humble, is much homier than the nearly empty apartment of the TV series.

Quite a bit more accurate is the portrayal of Ralph's neighbor and friend, Ed Norton, by Mike Epps. Once again, his wife, Trixie, as played by Regina Hall, bears little resemblance to the Trixie of the TV series, who was virtually a clone of Alice Kramden, and is instead virtually a clone of Alice as played by Ms. Union.

Another jarring difference from the TV series is that the TV series was virtually a weekly stage play and very little that took place in it took place away from the Kramden's nearly barren apartment. This probably won't bother anyone who has never seen the TV series, but to someone familiar with the original, it does make it seem quite a bit less Honeymooner-ish (to coin a phrase).

At the same time, approaching it from the perspective of someone who is unfamiliar with the TV series, this is a basically good movie about Ralph Kramden, a man who is a dreamer, married to a woman who dreams, too, but whose dreams are practical, and who has a friend that somehow always ends up being drawn into Ralph's crazy schemes.

The plot in a nutshell is that Alice and Trixie discover that an old woman is selling a nice duplex at a good price, and want to buy it. However, they are competing against a slick developer (Eric Stoltz). They are also up against the fact that they haven't enough money for a down payment on the house. Meanwhile, Ralph is gambling his and Alice's savings on various schemes, including purchasing a railroad car he wants to turn into a tour bus without considering how he's going to get it out of its subterranean location to street level six stories up.

Finding an abandoned greyhound in a dumpster, he and Ed have the idea of racing the dog to earn money for the house, and they get plenty of "help" from a shifty dog trainer played delightfully by John Leguizamo. I won't have to tell you how well this plan goes if you're at all familiar with The Honeymooners TV show, and this disaster drives a wedge between Ralph, Alice, Ed, and Trixie.

As the movie draws to a close, the question becomes can Ralph redeem himself, and if you're familiar with the TV series, you know the answer to that as well.