Things Change, 1988 *Spoiler/plot- The mob need a patsy to help in a mob murder. The mob gunman takes the patsy wants a special trip to enjoy his life before he needs to do his job for the mob boss.*Special Stars- Don Ameche, Joe Mantegna, Robert Prosky, William H. Macy, WRITER- David Mamet.*Theme- Honesty solves most foreseen problems.*Trivia/location/goofs- Was Don Ameche's last role on film to end his great career.*Emotion- A wonderfully charming film full of great developed characters and great with many sensible plot twists. Very satisfying and fulfilling.*Based On- Mob dealings of the time.

This is a quiet, enjoyable film with Mantegna playing Mantegna, the nervy, edgy man who thinks he is smarter than everyone else but needs to go back to school for a few more lessons. He is saved by Ameche, a little man who plays a fool to get by in a dangerous world, never letting anyone know if it is an act or real. He lets the cat out of the bag in the bath house scene, when he opens his mouth and out comes this magnificent version of "Return to me" but in Italian.The film has one problem once the pair arrive in Tahoe, Mantegna passing the gentle shoe shine man off as a Capo. It's quite funny to watch everyone bow and scrape in those scenes from the arrival at the airport until they settle into their suite, but after that Mamet has a problem. Where do he go from here? The ending is predictable, but any other would have chased patrons out of the theater in anger.

There are several goofs in this film, but none are listed in the IMDb page for this film.Most glaring is the set of scenes that involve the escape from Lake Tahoe in the hot-wired car. At the gas station, when it is obvious to the gas station owner that the two men have no money, the owner reaches in a grabs the keys, to prevent them from escaping. Where did the keys come from? They hot-wired the car, remember?Another goof is one that is pervasive in most films from this era. The "quarter in the phone" sound-effect noise of the change being dropped into the phone. Fortress phones (single-slot models) never were equipped with bells to signal insertion of the money. And why did he need to use his magic quarter to make a collect call?

"Things Changes" is a light-hearted look at what happens to an old Italian shoe shiner (Ameche) who's a naive patsy for the mob when a mafia flunky (Mantegna) takes them two of them to Tahoe for a last blast. This Mamet film has a lot of pluses not the least of which is Mantegna and Ameche together in one of Ameche's last films. The story is a cute comedy with a kind of sentimental "feel" to it. The kind of movie that's hard not to like.