Theme Song:
“White Lies” by Darrell Brown, Adryan Russ, and Syreeta Wright. This is the only song in the entire movie. The rest of the soundtrack is made up of random trumpets and violin stabs delivered with comedic effect.
Social Context: This is anti-capitalism Reaganomics fallout, but it’s all delivered so terribly any subtext is totally lost. It’s unfortunate, because done correctly there was fodder in this era for lampooning, but what shows up on screen is a bit of a slog with minimal laughs.
Summary: Dissatisfied, middle-age baby boomer Richard Jackson (Brian Dennehy) is tired of all of the most-tired ’80s stereotypes: diaphragms, cars made in Japan, automation taking jobs, long distance phone calls, airline delays, diminishing sex drive, fast food, sushi, and new age religion. After a series of lazily plotted vignettes, he snaps and decides to take his nuclear family off-grid, which garners a lot of local attention.
But as is typical of people in middle-age who endlessly project, the real problem is himself, who hates his job and has racked up such insane gambling debts that he stole his wife’s (Ann Archer, Hero At Large) engagement ring and mailed it to his cousin to sell for cash.
Finally after getting fired and subjecting his family and their suburban home to goats, chickens, farming, and a life without electricity, he confesses to his wife that he stole the engagement ring she thought had been lost and used it to pay off said gambling debts.
She instantly forgives him and insists they roleplay, wherein he plays a Hungarian rapist who enjoys oral sex in order to spice up their sexlife. Then the movie ends.
Worth Mentioning:
– Directed by actress turned director Joan Darling who did a lot of T.V. work for sitcoms that didn’t make it: Nothing is Easy, starring Dee Wallace and Elliott Gould in a 1986 sitcom about family! Aka Pablo, from 1984, starring Paul Rodriguez as a comedian trying to make it in L.A.!
– This movie has interesting ties to First Blood:
- Brian Dennehy was, of course, featured prominently in First Blood in the role of Teasle.
- Written by Robert Kaufman who wrote Rundown favorite Split Image, which was directed by Ted Kotcheff.
- An uncredited co-director credit went to Kotcheff who was brought in to the production of The Check Is In The Mail to film additional scenes nearly 6 months after the movie had wrapped. These additional scenes were an attempt to improve the film.
Poster and Box Art: A super well-done illustration on the theatrical poster that was also used on the home video release.
This poster is by Larry Salk, who handled a lot of commercial art and ’80s movie posters, but his best known work might be the Seinfeld Kramer portrait.