Review by Darren Gaskell
Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) meets cute Julie Peters (Mare Winningham) and life is good as he prepares for what he believes will be a life-changing first date with her. One power outage later, Harry finds himself three and a half hours late to meet Julie at the diner where she works and, to no one’s surprise, she’s long since headed home in a state of upset. Calling her from the payphone outside the diner, Harry leaves a message apologising for blowing it in such a big way and when the phone rings almost as soon as he’s put the receiver down, he picks up, hoping it’s Julie giving him a chance to explain further.
It isn’t Julie.
Instead, it’s a guy called Chip, attempting to call his father to warn him that America has launched a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Russia and that the retaliatory missiles will be hitting the States within the next seventy minutes. The phone call is terminated in the most abrupt way imaginable and Harry is left wondering whether or not he’s just been the victim of a prank call but if it was true, can he reach Julie and get them both out of Los Angeles before the unthinkable happens?
At this point, it’s only right that I ‘fess up about my feelings for Steve De Jarnatt’s wonderfully peculiar genre hopper. Simply put, it’s my all-time favourite. I remember seeing it for the first time in an art cinema in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, delaying my appearance at a very understanding friend’s housewarming party because it was the first time I’d spotted the film playing anywhere in the UK. Already having purchased the incredible Tangerine Dream soundtrack on CD, I had to watch the movie to which it was aligned. After the credits had rolled, I was still in my seat trying to deal with it all, my world utterly rocked by the previous eighty-seven minutes of cinematic chaos.
Miracle Mile sets out as a rom com, detours into a memorably nightmarish set-up straight out of the best Twilight Zone episodes, stops off to take in a one location, ensemble mini drama piece then drives headlong into a real time, against the clock thriller before the gradually encroaching horrors are fully realised in a brilliantly tense final act, playing off the audience’s – and Harry’s – realisations and expectations of what has been set in motion, all delivered with a delightfully surreal edge.
Crucial to the success of the piece is the casting of Edwards and Winningham as the couple, displaying a winning, easy going chemistry that makes it impossible for the viewer to root against them. Edwards brings his innate likeability and charm to Harry and Winningham scores as a love interest that, as the script states, is slightly out of time, pleasingly out of step with typical Hollywood leading ladies of the era and perfect for this skewed look at life.
And oh, what a supporting roster too, packed with performers who have graced numerous movies and TV projects across the years. Bringing their A-game (amongst many others): Denise Crosby as a no-nonsense businesswoman who suspects the warning may be real; Robert Do’Qui, previously the gruff desk sergeant in RoboCop, here playing an even more gruff diner owner; Earl Boen and Danny De La Paz as patrons and BBQ enthusiasts.
When the action movies away from the eatery, the quality of actor doesn’t drop one iota, with our hero encountering Terminator alumnus Brian Thompson as a beefcake with a very specific set of skills, Mykelti Williamson as Wilson, whose involuntary involvement in Harry’s quest may clash with a set of business interests possibly not entirely on the level and Kurt Fuller as…well, I should allow you to discover what’s going with Kurt Fuller’s character for yourselves.
Underscoring its often downbeat plot points with a streak of quirky, occasionally laugh out loud humour, Miracle Mile also delivers on suspense and spectacle in a way which belies its budget, focusing on tightly marshalled sequences of mayhem that resonate more than any bloated, big studio swings at portraying a citywide slide into complete lawlessness.
Characters make frustratingly misguided decisions, blurt out odd lines of dialogue, flounder in the face of urgency. In this extraordinary situation, its inhabitants feel convincingly ill-equipped to deal with any of it. Even Harry is far from perfect. He’s a victim of his own idealism, seeing too much good in others, overestimating his assumed role as the central character in an unfolding catastrophe, focused on his mission to a point at which he has little grasp of the bedlam enveloping the area.
Switching the “Will they/won’t they?” construct of the comedy romance for “Will they/won’t they survive?,” the final twenty minutes are fraught with back and forth, life threatening moments for Harry and Julie, giving the audience sporadic pauses for breath before plunging them back into an even worse predicament, culminating in a final scene which may leave you an emotional wreck. That’s if the previous eighty minutes hasn’t.
Thirty-five years on, the power of Miracle Mile remains undimmed. Its willingness to mix genres results in a piece of work which switches effortlessly between sweet and terrifying, bolstered further by fabulous yet unshowy performances by Edwards and Winningham and superb support by all concerned, especially Williamson’s initially fun, ultimately sympathetic turn. The propulsive Tangerine Dream score is one of their best and to this day I always hear their track Running Out Of Time whenever I’m pushing a shopping trolley.
Ridiculously overlooked by audiences on its original release, the movie’s undoubted quality has endured and its following has rightly grown. I haven’t even gone into the heart rending subplot concerning Julie’s grandparents, one of whom is She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (and Tarantula!) star John Agar. There is so much more I could say about Miracle Mile but you should seek it out: watch it, get blown away and then we will talk about it. Oh, we will talk.
Miracle Mile (1988) screened as part of this year’s Spirit of Independence Film Festival in Sheffield, UK. For more information on the fest, please click here.