Peggy Sue Got Married (1986): Charlie is my Constant [Mike’s Review]
Today on Cage Club we conclude the “Uncle Francis Trilogy” with the time travel movie “Peggy Sue Got Married”. It stars Kathleen Turner as Peggy Sue and depicts her adventure traversing the time stream. She doesn’t use a machine to travel through time like in Terminator or Back to the Future, it’s more like what happens to Desmond on LOST. Peggy’s time traveling is triggered by stress and panic transporting her mind back to the past and into the body of her younger self. Can she learn to love her husband in the future by accepting him in the past?
The film begins with the introduction of Nic Cage right after the opening credits. It’s a commercial and he’s selling stereo equiptment, smashing fortune cookie filled with great deals! He plays “Crazy” Charlie and I immediately identified this as a parody of “Crazy Eddie” the short live 80’s Stereo store mogul. Knowing we will travel back in time at some point I wonder if this is the dark timeline we are seeing. Is Charlie’s fate as a hokey stereo salesman the result of poor decisions that might be corrected in the end? It’s revealed the commercial is playing on Peggy Sue’s television and her daughter ( Helen Hunt ) remarks that “Dad is on TV”. Talk about economic storytelling. It’s less than a minute and I know that Peggy Sue was married to Charlie and had a daughter but now they are separated. It’s also the night of Peggy Sue’s 25th high school reunion and she’s hoping not to run into Charlie there, too embarrassed about the impending divorce. Restraining order? The Marriage is strained because Charlie strayed, among a list of other things that seems to go way back to high school .
Peggy Sue is stressing big time when she gets to the reunion and reunites with all the people we will revisit later as kids. We see that Charlie and Peggy Sue were Prom King and Queen ( obviously ) in one of the oversized posters hanging about. There’s Jim Carrey doing coke with Catherine Hicks. Is that Joan Allen by the punch bowl? It’s a full on flashback and Peggy isn’t handling it too well. Just then Peggy’s worst nightmare comes true, Charlie arrives at the reunion. His entrance is very angelic as he’s backlit and wearing all white to compliment his graying hair. He slowly descend the stairs to join the rest of the mortals and revel in the past. Peggy was having fun reminiscing with her old best friends but Charlie’s entrance flings her in panic mode. The reunion committee nominates a King and Queen of the reunion? Ok. They crown former nerd but newly rich inventor Richard as King and Peggy Sue as Queen. Peggy can’t quite handle the attention and all the lights and she gets dizzy. Everything is blurry and warped and I’m reminded of the movie Carrie thinking any second Peggy Sue is gonna psychically murder everyone in the room. But she doesn’t, she passes out and travels back in time twenty five years. Admittedly that’s equally impressive as what Carrie does and not really as scary or gruesome.
When Peggy awakens she’s in the nurses office giving blood in 1960 ! She’s not even sure what happened yet and before she can get her bearings in comes Nic Cage as Teenage Charlie. He’s pretending to be Count Dracula and I start getting my own time flashes forward to “Vampire’s Kiss”. Gotta talk about “Teen Charlie” here for a moment. Cage completely transforms himself for the role. His body language is awkward like he’s uncomfortable with his own body or isn’t used to his growth spurt. His voice is high pitched and unusual reflecting someone going through puberty. All these touches help make Charlie a complete character and shows Cage’s commitment to a role. I just watched him as a World Championship Sculler in “The Boy In Blue” and now I believe he is a high school boy.
Peggy spend the next few scenes getting acclimated to time travel. She freaks out upon seeing her Mom and little Sister ( naturally ) and inspects her old room. Is she dreaming, or dead? Theses are questions rattling around in her head but first, a drink. Peggy Sue figures, what the hell, and gets loaded off her old man’s stash. She becomes petulant and gets sent to her room by her Dad when she insults his new car, an Edsel, a car synonymous with “failure” in 1985. The next day she’s is in a better mood and decides to stick around 1960 a while, like she has a choice. Charlie arrives to drive her to school in his totally amazing blue Cadillac. All the cars in this movie are amazing because cars used to look way better than they do today. On the way to school we learn that Peggy and Charlie almost went “all the way” but now decided to try seeing other people. Peggy figures there’s no time like the present, or past, and suggest they start seeing outer people immediately . Is she just messing with Charlie knowing he will try to get her back or is she actively attempting to alter the timeline and craft a new future?
In English class Peggy Sue swoons over Michael, a bad boy literature junkie who argues passionately with the teacher. He thinks Hemingway is a phony and also loves poetry although kinda sucks at it himself. At lunch Charlie gets the silent treatment. After school Peggy has forgotten how to twirl her baton at Majorette practice. Then she finally has time to continue her investigation into what the hell is happening to her by seeking out the smartest kid in school, Richard. Richard goes on to become King of the Reunion in twenty five years as well as a rich inventor. It’s funny that Peggy Sue didn’t go to the science teacher or something because it just seems like they would know more about physics than the kids they teach. Maybe she thought Richard may read science fiction and be more understanding since he still had his kid like sense of wonder. Peggy actually convinces Charlie she’s telling the truth because she knew about his deaf grandpa and when the Apollo Moon Landing would happen. Charlie may have been predisposed to believe Peggy on two counts. First, Peggy Sue is the super hot popular girl and Richard is a straight up nerd and would do anything for her attention. Second, he has developed his own theory on time travel called the Burrito theory. I’m not sure what the hell Richard is getting at but he says thus; time touches at moments like a burrito and you can fill the empty space with anything you want, dreams, experiences, anything. What the H ?!? I love time travel movies and can go along with just about any thing you throw at me for an “explanation” but I’ve never heard anything make less senses to me in my life. I’m wonder if it wasn’t Peggy Sue and her verbal diarrhea about the future that accounts for Richard’s true success in the future. She tells him about all kinds of stuff that will be invented and there is a scene of him reading off a list of crap that don’t exist yet. The words “High Tech” are emblazoned on his brain. I’m starting to wonder if Peggy Sue actually did go back in time.
Just as Peggy seems to have a handle on her situation the phone rings and it’s her dead grandma on the other line. Peggy flips out and starts crying ( naturally ) and her mother consoles her wondering if she’s so emotional because of boy trouble. Mom’s only word of advice when dealing with boys ? “Stay Away From Penis”. The mother is played by Barbara Harris of “Freaky Friday” fame, another movie with similar themes in which a woman has her adult mind transplanted into a teenage body. That night, Charlie arrives to take Peggy Sue over to Patty’s make out party. He prays to Teen Idol “Fabian” for luck and eats rice crispy treats while getting advice from Peggy’s Dad until it’s time to go. Nic Cage get’s to act opposite his cousin Sofia in this scene who plays the younger sister Nancy. Peggy’s ready to roll but not before pointing out how crazy Charlie’s sweater is. It’s a fun moment because, like many moments in the film, Peggy Sue is seeing the fashion in the context of 1985 but the people around her are oblivious to that. Charlie just thinks she likes his sweater. When they get to the party it’s in full swing with teens making out, drinking, smoking and talking about who’s not a virgin. It’s typical teenage stuff that hasn’t changed very much in the days since. Just when this party couldn’t get any crazier, Charlie and his Doo Wop group take the stage in matching glittering golden jackets. They perform their best “Dion and the Belmonts” impression complete with matching dance moves and Charlie as the front man on lead vocals.Cage definitely sounds better than his performance in “Racing Withe the Moon.” and the boys look like they could pass for an actual boy band. The energy is great and everyone is going nuts. After the performance it’s time to make out and Charlie seduces Peggy Sue on the dance floor by telling her dancing was originally a mating ritual. Cut to later that night and they are parked in a car, likely at that town’s “Make Out Point” cause there’s one in every town. Peggy and Charlie are getting real hot and heavy when Peggy Sue suggests they “go all the way”. She starts talking real filthy and unzips his pants, Charlie asks if she wants “His Wang”, wang being a euphemism for penis. I can hear Peggy’s Mom now. “Stay away from Penis, Peggy Sue.” SHUT UP MOM! In a very out of character moment, Charlie is freaking at the sudden proposition and puts the breaks on the whole situation, blaming Peggy Sue for being too confrontational and embarrassing him. He dumps her in town near the Diner in which an impromptu sock hop is occurring with kids dancing on the countertops while drinking malts. It’s gotta be close to midnight at this point, go home you crazy teenagers. Peggy sees the elusive Michael from English Class in a corner reading and wonders if this is her chance to sow some wild oats she never had the chance to sow the first go around.
Peggy totally seduces Michael and allows herself to experience passion with someone other than Charlie. I don’t exactly know how far they go because the scene ends, but I don’t think they did “it” because Peggy Sue doesn’t loose her virginity until her 18th Birthday. Not to get too far ahead but it may even be the act of making love that triggered her return trip to the future so I’m gonna say they went to 3rd base at most. While watching this sequence I couldn’t help but be reminded that Peggy Sue may look like a teenager to the people in the movie, but I know it’s a 40 something year old woman inside that head. Passing thoughts of statuary rape raced thru my mind as I watch Peggy allow Michael beyond the blouse. Peggy spends the next day blabbing secrets of the future to Richard and decides to invent pantyhose if she gets trapped in the past. There’s a nice moment when Richard is caught looking in the window of the lingerie shop but I believe this scene may be a clue that Peggy actually went back in time. They do so much confirming she’s from the future here that it’s hard to ignore. It’s plausible that “Teenage Peggy’s” consciousness is trapped in some limbo for the duration of the film and returns with a mixed sense of amnesia and deja vu in the end. There is no definitive answer and the movie plays it coy just the right amount to have fun speculating about the nature of time travel rather than get you frustrated attempting to figure it all out.
That night, Charlie sneaks into Peggy Sue’s to smother her with a pillow. No joke. It’s shot like a horror movie too and I’m wondering what the hell is happening. Is Charlie feeling residual effects of the time stream diverting, leading to acute insanity from conflicting memories of his own future? Ouch, my head! Turns out Dolores isn’t just a slut but a snitch too and Charlie knows all the juicy tidbits about the rendezvous with Michael. They argue in the basement and miraculously don’t wake up Mom, Dad and Domino. Charlie has to at least give his dream of being the next Fabian a shot or he’ll regret it for the rest of his life, probably resenting Peggy Sue in the process. Peggy Sue confronts Charlie on the infidelity he has yet to commit and wants to save him from a life of regret. But these are future problems Charlie hasn’t experienced yet which totally confuses the hell of an already very confused young man to begin with. Charlie storms out with purpose leaving Peggy Sue even more emotionally fragile. The next night at Lina’s Dine & Dance, Peggy Sue tries to feel better by breaking Michael’s heart, having come to some of her senses after the blow out in the basement. She was only using Michael but he’s cool with it because now he’s got a personal experience to inspire all his supposed great writing one day. Charlie turns up at the bar to audition for a record producer, or manager or promoter. It’s never clear to me, but what is clear is that he’s influential and breaks hot new acts. He rather casually passes on signing Charlie and doesn’t even flinch, but Charlie needed a reality check and this experience will be a good life lesson. Until now only his friends heard him sing and even if they didn’t like his voice they most likely said they did. Teens are like that, they will placate the cool guy because they think it’ll make them cool too and Charlie is the coolest. Peggy’s 18th birthday is right around the corner and I’m starting to see this movies’s ticking clock finally emerge. Peggy Sue must conceive by her 18th Birthday or the Pocket Universe will collapse on itself killing everyone in the multiverse along with it.
Peggy Sue flees to her Grandparents in the country hoping put some distance between Charlie in an attempt to change her destiny. The time stream is angry and a big storm begins to blow into town foreshadowing a tough night ahead. The Grandparents turn out to be incredibly sweet and strange at the same time. They comfort Peggy and accept her story of everything you just read. It seems these Grandparents are not fooling around either. The Grandma claims to see her own death and Grandpa belongs to a secret society said to be founded by a real live time traveler !?! Somebody check their meds please. The movie veers deep into the fantasy genre in the third act and that may be an intentional light hearted touch to add more comedy after such a heavy end to the second act. Grandpa takes Peggy Sue to the Lodge where a meeting has been called to order. They will send Peggy Sue back to her rightful place as they claim to have done on occasion. As the storm outside comes to a crescendo and the Head of the Lodge chants the special incantation there is a power outage! When the lights come back Peggy Sue is gone, IT WORKED! She vanished! Everyone congratulates each other and it’s back to cards.
But it didn’t work. Charlie followed Peggy to the country in one last ditch display of stupid love. He just had to see her on her birthday and give her his gift, a precious locket that Peggy Sue cherishes in 1985 plus the news that he’s giving up singing for good and he’s really fine with it. His Dad even gave Charlie 10% of the store because he was just ecstatic his kid finally came around and isn’t a wacky degenerate anymore. Peggy is at long last in love with Charlie for better or worse. They accept each other unconditionally, fall to the ground and proceed celebrating. This highly emotional state ( and the sex ) triggers the return trip home for Peggy’s consciousness. She comes to in a hospital greeted by a disheveled Charlie who hasn’t left her side in days. The room is full of flowers and gifts including a book from Michael with a special transcription to Peggy Sue about the night that never happened, or did it? My mind races once again this time to consider what’s changed and if all this really happened. It’s hard to say for sure but one thing is positive, Peggy Sue and Charlie have put aside their childish ways and will move forward as adults from now on. No more blaming everything on the past but rather thank the past for everything they are fortunate enough to have, especially each other.
Mike
@the_mikestir
