When her sister is kidnapped in Colombia, novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) heads south to trade her life for a mysterious stone.
Joined by shady smuggler Jack Colton (Michael Douglas), Joan finds herself only one of multiple parties who are on the trial of the stone.
What an amazing movie.
I almost did not want to write anything about it. Nothing I write will be new. I just want to sing its praises.
For some reason, no matter how many times I see it, I always forget how great it is. Ironically I have memories of watching Jewel of the Nile more often - it was probably cheaper to air on TV - but I have not seen it in years.
I first watched this movie as a kid, and I have caught a couple of times since.
I need to make it part of my regular rotation.
When I was studying screenwriting, all the literature I read always cited Romancing the Stone for its narrative structure and character development.
What an amazing sense of economy. It just feels so breezy and easy.
It is not until you watch Jewel of the Nile that you realise how hard it is to make a movie like this. The closest thing I can think of to its vibe is The African Queen except this couple get to have sex.
The overheated opening scene is amazing, not just because of what it sets up but (and this was my takeaway after watching the comparable sequence in the sequel) the way that manages to evoke the cinematic language of the genre that Wilder is writing.
The hard cut to a close up of Kathleen Turner, crying and congested, is the movie in a nutshell - it immediately deflates the mythic, cinematic promise of the title.
Kathleen Turner is a movie star with a charisma and a presence that would not usually suggest a character like Joan is a poor fit. Yet she commits totally to selling the character’s lack of self-worth.
The script has such a strong sense of the character. And while Douglas’s name is top-billed, this is Joan/Turner’s story.
While she works as part of a team with Jack, she is often the primary active party. She even saves herself at the end.
The film is her learning she can have an adventure.
She does not have to rely on her imagination, and she has the capacity to steer the action herself, rather than waiting on a mythical gunslinger to save her.
The role of Jack is unique in Michael Douglas’ filmography.
Casting himself (after other potential stars baulked at playing second banana) is inspired - Douglas would never be mistaken for a Boy Scout.
There is an inherent cynicism and weakness to the star that fits the character. Jack Colton is constantly forced to make a choice between greed and helping Joan.
Playing someone who has to grow and become a hero carries more weight and tension because it is Douglas.
What is wild to consider is that this is the role that helped make Douglas a star - and he would develop a persona that would stray far afield from the relatively straight-laced Jack.
As with Joan, his entrance is cinematic. In a manner that recalls the western opening, he is a silhouette on a hill, quick-drawing a shotgun to chase off Joan’s attacker.
He is established as a mythic figure, an echo of Jessie, the lover of Joan’s novels. That image is deflated as soon as Douglas actually introduces himself.
Jack is not only morally grey, he is not as competent as he appears: her bus crashes because he parked his jeep on the road
Danny DeVito is great as Ralph, a minor hoodlum who is on the trial of the stone. He is in less of the movie than I remember, but he gets the biggest laughs (the moment where he is running away from a car and shooting his gun over his head is sublime physical comedy).
The movie zips along. The simple plot giving space for the characters.
And while there are setpieces, they are never on the same scale of Indiana Jones. They feel just heightened enough for this story.
The movie is great at undermining expectations: the drug lord who turns out to be a fan of Joan’s books; Jack trying to hotwire a car, not realising there is a key in the ignition (because it’s owner, Ralph, is sleeping in the backseat).
The kidnapping scene is amazing - as Joan’s sister tries to make her escape, a young boy playing on the street uses bolas to knock her out and then kidnaps her and takes her away in her own car.
What makes Romancing the Stone such a great adventure movie is the focus on the relationship between the central pairing - and it is a testament to the script and the actors’ chemistry that this is enough to make the movie engaging.
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