Peggy Sue Got Married

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Peggy Sue Got Married follows Kathleen Turner’s title character as she passes out at her 25th high school reunion and discovers, when she wakes up, that she’s been magically transported back to her youth – with the episode allowing Peggy Sue to relive her teen years and fix certain mistakes that she made at the time. Filmmaker Coppola, working from blahs Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner, delivers an affable yet somewhat forgettable endeavor predominantly dominated by cookie-cutter elements, as Peggy Sue Got Married, for the most part, comes off as a fairly typically coming-of-age story that rarely (if ever) exploits its undercurrent of fish-out-of-water shenanigans. It’s clear, then, that the picture benefits substantially from Turner’s affable, ingratiating turn as the personable central character, although there’s little doubt that Nicolas Cage, cast as Peggy Sue’s high-school sweetheart and current-day husband, offers up an impressively idiosyncratic performance that remains an obvious and ongoing highlight within the proceedings. Coppola’s predictably solid work behind the camera goes a long way towards elevating the material on an appreciatively ongoing basis, certainly, as does the impressive production design and overall atmosphere of period-specific detail – which, when coupled with an expected yet satisfying finale, cements Peggy Sue Got Married‘s place as a minor success from an erratic filmmaker.

**1/2 out of ****