I Watch Quickchange: Paradise is Relative
by Hadley Ajana

If you haven't seen Quickchange, run - don't walk - to the local video store. This 1989 film stars Bill Murray (who also co-directed) as Grim, a city bureaucrat so fed up with life in New York City that he robs a bank and makes a run for a tropical island with his girlfriend Lois (Geena Davis) and his dopey best friend Loomis (Randy Quaid).

Jason Robard co-stars as the soon-to-be-retired police chief hot on the trail of these three felons as they race to the airport. On the way, Grim and the gang get mixed up with the mob (look for Stanley Tucci in an early character role), a controlling bus driver, yuppie urban dwellers (one of whom is Phil Hartman), and a foreign taxi driver who doesn't speak English (Tony Shaloub displays his comedic brilliance in an unforgettable performance).

Though it's about a getaway, Quickchange isn't your typical crime caper. That's because it's not really about the perfect crime or a great escape. It's a meditation on how difficult it is to accomplish anything in a crowded city full of idiots. This film doesn't appeal to your higher spiritual nature or your better self, but it does get you to laugh away some of the frustration you've felt at long lines, hostile strangers, inane bureaucrats, incompetent immigrants, ridiculous foreigners, money-grubbing professionals, pretentious development projects, corruption, and greedy neighbors, just to name a few of the nuisances people must negotiate on a daily basis in any urban environment. We are so used to tuning them out, meditating them away, pretending they don't exist, or avoiding them that one forgets how these nuisances "degrade the individual," as Grim puts it. You introverts will enjoy knowing that everyone gets rattled by urban life. It's funny to see others poke fun at our daily frustrations. Extroverts will be laughing off their frustration, too, but for a different reason.

Whatever your psychological orientation, you'll identify with Grim's irritation with urban life. We've all wanted to get away from the city and the people in it at one time or another. We just want a little peace and quiet and a kind and intelligent human being to interact with when interaction becomes necessary. As Grim, Loomis, and Lois make their way to the airport for the getaway, Grim realizes his carefully scouted route has become impossible to navigate because a construction crew has removed the signs pointing to the airport. They stop to ask one of these workers which way the freeway is. The conversation is repeatedly interrupted by a woman who sticks her head out of a nearby building to yell "shut up" every few seconds. The crew feels it's obligatory to respond in kind and then complain about the woman to the car full of strangers. Despite the interruptions, Grim is finally able to establish that though the signs pointing to the freeway are on hand, no one can remember which way they originally pointed. No one else on the street in this immigrant neighborhood appears to speak English.

The run-away felons then encounter a Latino man on a bicycle engaged in a bazaar ritual that approximates Don Quixote's charge of a windmill which Loomis points out can only be bad luck. This situation is resolved when our heroes encounter a friendly, English-speaking man by the side of the road. His courtesy arouses suspicion until they learn he is from out of town. The "tourist" is only too happy to give directions -- and then rob them of their possessions. Even though they're bank robbers, it's hard not to sympathize with Grim and the gang. Introverts and extroverts alike can relate. There's a difference as to how, though.

Grim is the ultimate extrovert, adroitly manipulating those around him in order to get to the airport and make his escape. His ability to think on his feet and talk fast get the three main characters out of tight spots over and over again. What resonates with introverts is his desire to get away from other people. They're everywhere you go in the city, getting in the way and disrupting your contemplation and serenity. For you, Grim is a hero. I don't think I'm ruining anything by telling you that Grim, Loomis, and Lois escape to a secluded paradise with enough money to buy them peace, quiet, and solitude for the rest of their lives. They got a one way ticket out of urban hell.

Extroverts will identify with the frustration Grim feels at the incompetence and ineptitude of others. Here is the master of extroversion forced to outsmart and manipulate corrupt, rude, and stupid individuals at every turn. Grim doesn't dislike the people he encounters because they're forcing him to interact with them; he dislikes them because they're interacting with him so badly. One gets the feeling Grim used to thrive on the interaction and stimulation of city life, but he's grown disgusted with the poor people skills of those he's forced to deal with.

For those with extroverted orientation, what resonates in this film is not the feeling of being crowded or rushed or forced to interact when we would rather be left alone. It's the loneliness, frustration, and disgust that comes from longing for another real extrovert - someone who is kind, polite, generous, intelligent, and articulate, someone who really knows how to interact. For us, Grim is an ambivalent hero, at best. Sure he got away with the perfect crime. But where does he think he's going? Fiji is no place for an extrovert. Guys like Grim thrive on the stimulation and excitement of the city. His frustration will be only temporarily eased on a tropical island. Eventually life without fine dining, world class entertainment, fascinating foreigners, western civilization's best art, and the challenge of the fast lane will frustrate Grim even more than the troglodytes that seemed to make his paradise unbearable for a brief while.

They say that deep down inside, every true New Yorker feels like people who live anywhere else are in some way kidding. Surely Grim jests. You don't leave paradise.

more reviews by Hadley Ajana