Barbara (Bette Midler) and Dave Whiteman (Richard Dreyfuss) are a wealthy Beverly Hills couple. He makes clothes hangers and is sleeping with the maid Carmen (Elizabeth Peña). She's obsessed with gurus and new age stuff. Their son Max is bitter with them and always filming with his camera. Their daughter Jenny (Tracy Nelson) is away at college with eating issues. The family is weird Hollywood and even the dog has a psychiatrist. Jerry Baskin (Nick Nolte) is a bum. His dog has left him. He tries to drown in Whitemans' pool. Dave rescues him and invites the not-so-grateful homeless man to stay. Orvis Goodnight (Little Richard) is the next door neighbor.It's interesting that grumpy Nick Nolte is not likable at the beginning. It's also interesting that he becomes more likable as Dave becomes more angry at him. At first, it concern me where the movie was going with the character. It may not hit with big laughs but it's biting in skewering the Hollywood stereotypes. In the end, it's a fun time with some memorable characters.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills features an excellent cast doing probably their each individual best work. The casting itself is pitch perfect right down to the two dogs. But I believe the problem stems from the direction. The films claims it's a comedy, when really, it's a chuckle-delivering drama. I think director Paul Mazursky accidentally made the premise a bit too serious.You know how people say a film is "love it or hate it?" I think Down and Out in Beverly Hills is "love it or accept it." I think of these kinds of films sort of as "elegant comedies" where the sets and actors are very classy, but it's questionable you'd want to see a movie with those kind of characters. Other movies I believe fit into my sub-genre are Arthur and Fierce Creatures. They aren't bad films, but I don't believe the characters are interesting enough to carry the weight of a full length film on their backs.The plot: A rich family's life is changed when a bum tries to commit suicide in their backyard pool. The family is made wealthy because the husband, Dave Whiteman (Dreyfuss), is the head of a coat-hanger factory. His wife Barbara (Midler) is happy with the wealth, but unsatisfied as a person. Her and Dave's relationship is complex and she is more often than not left unfulfilled by her husband.The bum is played fantastically by Nick Nolte. His name is Jerry, and after his "faithful" dog companion runs away to find a home with a jogger, Jerry jumps in the Whitemans' pool when it is draining to try and kill himself. Seconds away from being gone, Dave jumps in to save the man and to revitalize him as a human being to make him happier in life.An act of role reversal is made here where the happier half is the bum and the sadder half is the wealthy family, so the film gives a sincere look at how some people live their lives and how some are happier than others. The problem is just in the way it's executed which is hard to explain. It's hokey and not as inspired as it would seem.Paul Mazurksy has a talent for squeezing the most out of his actors and giving them constant, incorruptible, shockingly well-built chemistry. Later in his career, he provided the same chemistry to Woody Allen and Bette Midler in Scene from a Mall, a movie that besides the chemistry, has little to offer. The setup between the three leads is anything but contrived and highly welcomed as they each give their own sense of screen magic.So, what is wrong with Down and Out in Beverly Hills? It's honestly hard to say. I sat through the whole thing, no interruptions, and upon finishing it I reached a quandary. I didn't know if I liked what I just watched. Sitting down, writing this hasn't helped much either. I think it's one of those films that is cute, warm, and gentle, but that's it. There's nothing wrong with that if that's what you're looking for, but there isn't much urgency or attraction equipped in the script. Just a bunch of characters wandering around, awaiting the next predicament to fall into.Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Bette Midler, and Nick Nolte. Directed by: Paul Mazursky.

Americanization of the 1932 French comedy "Boudu sauvé des eaux", based on the play by René Fauchois, is one of Paul Mazursky's most misguided ventures (although it was a big hit in 1986, a time when the words 'Beverly Hills' were a current catchphrase at the cinema). Wealthy, pampered, but highly dysfunctional denizens of Southern California take in a hobo who has tried to drown himself in their swimming pool. Upon moving in, the now-cleaned up bum/con-artist discovers he's more normal than his filthy-rich patrons. Paint-by-numbers filmmaking, done up in loud colors. Richard Dreyfuss, Nick Nolte and, particularly, Bette Midler do everything they can with meager material. *1/2 from ****

Paul Mazursky's southern California update of Jean Renoir's 1932 comedy 'Boudo Saved From Drowning' stars Nick Nolte as a skid row derelict rescued from attempting suicide in the backyard swimming pool of upscale executive Richard Dreyfuss. Installed quite suddenly in the lap of luxury, Nolte begins exerting unusual influence over his benefactors, but the ambiguity of the character and his intentions is needlessly destroyed in the final scenes. Mazursky is on familiar ground for most of the movie, as always at his best when mocking the lifestyles of the rich and trendy, but it's a shame that he felt compelled to combine scenes of near sublime social satire with indiscriminate numbskull farce. Someone should have told him that seeing people fall fully clothed into a swimming pool (as most of the cast is required to do at the film's climax) is only funny when you're there to witness it firsthand.