Review of Tune In Tomorrow

Introduction

If there is one thing that unifies audiences today, it`s the soap opera. Every day, millions gather around the television to follow the day-to-day lives of larger than life characters, their scandals and affairs, and the sordid little details that act as titillation and distraction from the tedium of the real world. It wasn`t always thus. There once was a time when audiences gathered around the wireless to listen to their favourite soaps, following the day-to-day lives and sordid affairs of larger than life characters. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Tune In Tomorrow is set during this golden age of radio.

1951 and WXBU, a New Orleans radio station is struggling to hold on to its listeners with a rather pedestrian drama serial. To change this state of affairs, the station boss employs the controversial writer Pedro Carmichael to spice things up. News writer Martin Loader gets a rather rude introduction to Carmichael, but seeing a potential kindred spirit, Pedro takes Martin under his wing. Soon audiences are electrified as a hot, steamy and sultry drama is breaking taboos and flirting with offence. Meanwhile Martin`s aunt Julia has returned from New York to recover from her second divorce. She finds the slow pace of life to be boring, and her cosmopolitan outlook impresses Martin. Pretty soon Martin has fallen for his attractive aunt and attempts to court her, unsuccessfully at first. Pedro sees this and is inspired; he`s soon helping Martin woo Julia. Then the radio drama takes a new twist that seems remarkably familiar.

Video

Tune In Tomorrow gets a by the numbers 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer that compares to most back catalogue fare from MGM. There`s some print damage, some macro-blocking and grain. Blacks could be stronger, and detail in darker scenes isn`t all that special. All in all, it`s the epitome of average.

Audio

Similarly the sound isn`t going to set speakers alight. You get a choice of DD 2.0 Surround English, German, French and Polish, as well as DD 2.0 Spanish. Is should be noted that the Polish track isn`t a dub, but merely the translated dialogue spoken over the original English track. The surround is adequate, the dialogue clear but the highpoint has to be the moody music from Wynton Marsalis. There are subtitle tracks in English, German, French, Dutch and Swedish.

Features

A tumbleweed rolls past, the wind echoes…

Conclusion

Tune In Tomorrow is quite an unconventional little comedy, but it has charm nonetheless. Pedro Carmichael is brought in to improve the ratings of a quaint little New Orleans radio station, after leaving the smouldering wreckage of a station on Detroit, a signal for disaster to say the least. Martin`s romance of his aunt (by marriage in case you were wondering) and Pedro`s involvement is played against imagined scenes from the radio drama, and it`s left for the viewer to decide if life is imitating art or vice versa.

Keanu Reeves is the young Martin Loader, and he fills the shoes of the earnest and amorous writer quite admirably, although his New Orleans accent does prove to be a distraction at times. Barbara Hershey is good as Aunt Julia, she looks elegant and her world-weary acceptance of life conflicting with her desire to hold on to her dreams is well portrayed. The star of the film is most definitely Peter Falk as Pedro Carmichael. The unconventional writer is eccentric, manipulative and single minded to the point of mania. This is a man who dresses up as his characters for inspiration, who has a mania about Albanians that causes offence to anyone of Albanian descent, and sees nothing wrong with manipulating events to serve as inspiration for his writing. He`s also eminently likeable and that`s down to Falk`s performance. Dan Hedaya is the eye-patch toting lead character of the radio drama, and joining him are Peter Gallagher and Hope Lange. This drama is the distillation of the ideal soap opera, designed solely to shock and excite, as well as cause offence.

Tune In Tomorrow came as a pleasant surprise to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The comedy is smart, and the romance between Martin and Julia never strays into the saccharine. The characters border on the bizarre at times, especially those in the drama, and the events in this film generally take a turn for the surreal. Still it does serve as commentary on the nature of entertainment today. The tactic of using shocking storylines and challenging taboos to keep audiences hooked is certainly not a new one, but to see the station boss weighing offending the public and keeping the listeners, shows the naked avarice clearly enough. Pedro`s insulting of Albanians is almost a signpost, reminding listeners that this isn`t real life. I also liked what the film has to say on the nature of inspiration and creativity, that creative people cannot be contained or expected to temper their work to people`s sensibilities.

I liked this film, and found it entertaining, but it may it be to everyone`s taste, Albanians in particular may want to think twice. But if you are in the mood for something different, unconventional yet light-hearted, then Tune In Tomorrow is definitely worth a spin.