Want to have a fun time without leaving the couch in your Naples real estate? Check out Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1987 masterpiece, Raising Arizona. The picture stars Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter as H.I. and Edwina, a.k.a. Ed. The screwball comedy of errors combines a little bit of off-beat satire with wacky dialogue, memorable personalities, and outrageous situations into this modern classic.
Cage is H.I., the film’s narrator, a small-time and incompetent crook known as a “repeat offender” who is partial to convenient stores. Locked up, one of his cellmates is a menstrual cramp suffering woman trapped in a man’s body, while another gentleman used to eat anything from crawdad to “sand” just to survive on the run. But when H.I. becomes a free man, he proposes to a cop. The convict marries an officer of the law twice decorated, and the two cancel each other out for a bizarre chemistry. As folks in homes for sale in Naples agree, it sure ain’t Ozzie and Harriet.
Despite living in the “Salad Days,” they decide that only thing missing is “a little critter,” as there was too much happiness for just the two of them. But it turns out, Ed is barren. H.I. describes his wife’s body as “a rocky place” where his “seed could find no purchase.” Of course, adoption agencies turn them down as well due to the man’s criminal record. So off-beat biology and the prejudices of others conspired to keep them childless. When a local celebrity has quintuplets, the couple decides that they have more than they can handle.
Two of H.I.’s absentminded buddies from prison, John Goodman and William Forsythe, break out, literally bursting out of the earth in a rainstorm. The escaped convicts try to convince their pal to revert back to a life of crime. They even grow a little attached to the baby. Goodman is superb, giving the finest performance of his career in the first of his four unforgettable roles for the Coens. Pre-Fargo Frances McDormand also gives a minute, but superb performance as the child-bearing wife of a blue-collar “decent folk.” “Mordechai, you take that diaper off your head and you put it back on your sister,” she demands of her son in one scene.
H.I. loses it and reverts to his old ways. Upon entering a convenient store, he utters the line, “I’ll be taking these Huggies and whatever cash ya got.” Of course, the Mrs. doesn’t approve, leaving her husband in an intricate chase involving cops, a pack of irritated dogs, and a stolen pack of diapers. But the most surreal problem in the felons’ lives is a mythical biker from the underworld, portrayed by Randal “Tex” Cobb. The evil one seems to show up once Mr. and Mrs. McDonough steal the child, in order to nap the baby for himself. Upon success, Ed ends up chasing him, hollering the legendary line, “Give me back my baby you warthog from hell!” The villain is never fully explained, but Naples luxury homeowners think he gives the film a mythical quality.
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Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty serves 19 counties throughout Florida with over 40 locations and approximately 1,800 Sales Professionals. The full-service brokerage company, founded in 1999, is a subsidiary of Lennar Corporation, a Fortune 500 company and is a franchise member of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ network, one of the few organizations entrusted to use the world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway name. The company offers residential and commercial services as well as seasonal rentals, property management, REO & Foreclosures, corporate relocations, referral services, title, home service plans, and personal concierge services. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty ranks in the Top 10 in the network among 42,000 Sales Professionals, 1,200 offices throughout 47 states. The company is the overall No. 1 fundraiser for The Sunshine Kids Foundation, having generated more than $3.37 million since 2001. Visit www.BHHSFloridaRealty.com.
