RELEASED IN 1986 and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, "Peggy Sue Got Married" chronicles events when the title character (Kathleen Turner) faints at her 25th high school reunion and mysteriously finds herself back in school just before graduation, 25 years earlier! Will she make the same mistakes or make things better? Nicolas Cage plays her beau while Barry Miller plays a beatnik romantic interest. Catherine Hicks & Joan Allen appear as her besties and Lisa Jane Persky her nemesis. Kevin J. O'Connor is on hand as a geek wiz while Jim Carrey has a peripheral role. This is perhaps Coppola's most entertaining film in a popcorn-entertainment sense. It immediately brings to mind "Back to the Future" (1985), but is more adult-oriented and (obviously) comes from a female perspective. It also recalls "17 Again" (2009) and is closer in tone to that flick. If you like those movies you'll probably like this one. The movie offers a nice mix of superficial-yet-genuine amusement and weighty reflections. Cage employs an interesting weird-axx voice to the point that I was wondering if he was dubbed. Keep in mind that Turner was 31 during filming and it would be impossible to make her look genuinely 18 again; same thing with many of her costars. As such, you have to suspend disbelief a bit when you see them back in high school. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour & 43 minutes and was shot in Southern Cal (Santa Rosa, Petaluma & Coverdale). WRITERS: Jerry Leichtling & Arlene Sarner. GRADE: B+

As a young woman who became an actress Kathleen Turner was very lucky. She got to star in a few cracking good movies early on in her career. Body Heat, Romancing The Stone, The Man With Two Brains & this one Peggy Sue Got Married. If there is a God, well he certainly smiled on Kathleen. Peggy Sue Got Married is one of those movies it is almost impossible not to like & guaranteed to cheer you up if your in a bit of a crap mood. Peggy Sue's marriage is on the rocks & she is in the throes of a divorce. When she attends a High-School reunion dance she somehow gets transported back in time to the 1950's when she was a teenager. Here she meets her lover & future husband played by handsome Nicolas Cage as well as her younger parents played by Barbara Harris & Don Murray. Inevitably people change, (hopefully for the better?), as they get older & the movie begs the obvious question as to whether you might do things differently given another chance. The class clever-clogs & budding scientist is played by Barry Miller. Like most school smart-arses he is not liked by his classmates but an older, wiser Peggy Sue thrown back in time gets to know him much better & like him. The movie's title is taken from the old Buddy Holly hit recording of the same name used in the opening & closing credits. What follows is a really good fantasy movie that will put just about everyone reminiscing about their youth. Great Stuff!.

Kathleen Turner's performance in the title role is the primary selling point of 1986's Peggy Sue Got Married, a somewhat charming comic fantasy that I have to constantly remind myself was actually directed by Francis Ford Coppola.Turner plays Peggy Sue Bodell, a divorced mother of a daughter (Helen Hunt) who goes to her high school reunion and shortly after being crowned reunion queen, faints, bumps her head, and when she wakes up, Peggy Sue is back in her senior year in high school.Unlike similar time-travel stories like the Back to the Future trilogy, instead of making sure the past happens the way it supposed to be, Peggy Sue decides to run with this opportunity, utilizing what she knows about the future in order to change it, her primary focus being the re- thinking of her relationship with her ex, Charlie Bodell (Nicolas Cage), which began in high school but Peggy Sue finds getting people behind her knowledge of the future is a lot more difficult than she imagined.The film is entertaining for the most part and provides some light laughs, but the whole thing just has an emptiness to it that doesn't sustain the length of the film. The screenplay is very talky and makes the lead character come off as kind of a smart-ass, which is a real detriment to the proceedings. We're supposed to be behind Peggy Sue but the screenplay is fighting her all the way.Kathleen Turner works hard in the title role and actually received her only Oscar nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress, though I think she has definitely done better work. Nicolas Cage turns in one of his worst performances as Charlie Bodell, using a high squeaky voice that just grates on the nerves. I don't know why Uncle Francis allowed him to get away with this. The rest of the cast is solid though, especially Don Murray and Barbara Harris as Peggy's parents and Barry Miller as Richard Novick, the school nerd who actually believes what Peggy Sue is trying to sell. Future stars Jim Carrey and Joan Allen can be spotted in small supporting roles and that's future Oscar-nominated director Sofia Coppola, the director's daughter, playing Peggy Sue's little sister.The film provides some entertainment value, but the whole thing just seems pointless because Peggy Sue's journey doesn't really change anything.

A sweet, little time travel comedy/romance. Kathleen Turner plays a woman attending her 25th high school reunion. She's embarrassed at just having divorced her high school sweetheart (Nicolas Cage), but she goes through with it anyway. While at the reunion, she faints and awakes in 1961, just before she turned 18. She has fun revisiting the time period, and decides to take things a different way, knowing that her relationship with Cage is due to fail. This film is messy as Hell. The script feels sloppy and the performances are all over the place. Nicolas Cage is at his most Nicolas Cagey - if you think he only got weird lately, well, he didn't. Turner really isn't very good at all (somehow she got an Oscar nomination - I don't get it). Everyone else is basically fine, but when your two lead performances are this bad, you can't expect the final results to be that good. Thankfully, the movie has a sweetness to it that's often endearing, even when it's not being particularly good. There are some very funny moments, too. Nicolas Cage talking about his "whang" (there's no "h" in that word, Nic) has to be one of the funniest lines I've ever heard.