The White Palace (1990) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) and Tuna

James Spader plays a workaholic 27 year old widower in an advertising agency. He's one of those guys who has no bad habits and fastens his seat belt.

Susan Sarandon plays an uneducated 43 year old minimum wage waitress/cashier at White Palace (a thinly-disguised White Castle). She's one of those women who can't find her seat belt under a mountain of junk food wrappers.

There is probably a great movie to be made by pairing those characters and actors. They didn't really find it. Despite an excellent start and a great characterization from Sarandon, it's not a very honest film, and it never could figure out whether it was a drama or a romantic comedy.

I found two things disturbing.

• In the midst of the naturalistic drama, Sarandon's psychic sister suddenly arrives - and she's not some kind of white-trash-I'll-believe-anything psychic whose nonsense is transparent to the audience. Nosireebob - she's the real thing - we are supposed to believe she has the sight. What's that all about? I thought this was a film about reality. Perhaps that was a cheap plot device to reveal details about Sarandon's past that the character herself won't talk about? 
• The movie has a contrived happy ending. They realize that Sarandon can never fit into his world, so Sarandon leaves town. Spader then quits everything - his job, his family, his friends - and runs to her side. I don't know about that. There's no problem with my understanding that he loves her because she's really a great person and sexy as hell. And I think they can resolve the age difference. After all, Sarandon is doing that in real life with Tim Robbins. But Robbins and Sarandon are soulmates. In the movie, I don't buy that these two people will ever solve the cultural barriers. The movie makes it absolutely clear that they have nothing to talk about. They don't share the same tastes in anything. Sooner or later they have to get out of bed. What do they do then? Hard to see how this could come to a happy ending. The ending was reflective of a larger problem in the storyline - it needed much more depth of characterization in the Spader character. He needed to be more reflective, more "real".

Those crazy developments in the middle and end of the film are a real shame, because the first act is excellent, and at the point it seemed that the movie was going to be tremendous. Furthermore, it may be Sarandon's best work in a distinguished career

But then the psychic hot line and the cornball improbable ending steered everything in a very unsatisfying and unrealistic direction, and the early promise of the film came to nought.

White Palace stars Susan Sarandon and James Spader in a romantic comedy. He is a successful anal-retentive Jewish lawyer. She is a waitress in a greasy spoon hamburger joint, twice his age, uneducated, and a total slob. Naturally, they fall madly in lust, then love. They separate, then reunite and live happily ever after. After all, that is the formula, and the script didn't deviate. There were some good moments, such as when Spader realizes that it is not Sarandon that is out of place with his friends, it is him. He is at a party, and discovers that the hostess's dust buster has no dust in it.

Sarandon is a personal favorite, and she did he usual splendid job in this film. Spader, whom I usually want to slap upside the head for his smirk, was not as irritating as he usually is, but there was not enough material for a film here. On the other hand, the sex scenes between the two sizzled, and we get several looks at Sarandon's breasts.