The Out-of-Towners (1999)

Action, Comedy
Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, Cynthia Nixon, John Cleese
Henry (Steve Martin) and Nancy Clark (Goldie Hawn) are a couple living in a quiet Ohio town. Married for 27 years, their last child Alan (Oliver Hudson) has left home, and Nancy is suffering from empty nest syndrome. Unbeknownst to her, Henry has lost his job due to corporate downsizing and has an interview in New York. Henry has told Nancy that his company has offered him a big promotion and so he needs to relocate to New York, but Nancy can stay in Ohio.At the very last minute, Nancy decides to board the flight and go to NY with Henry.From the moment they depart their hometown of Twin Oaks, Ohio, the couple suffers nearly every indignity out-of-town person possibly could experience: Heavy fog forces their flight to circle around Kennedy Intl. Airport repeatedly and finally be rerouted to Boston's Logan Airport, where they discover their luggage - in which Henry's ulcer medication and Nancy's extra cash are packed - was left behind. Henry didn't eat any airline food.Just missing the train at South Station, they hire a car to drive to New York. The heater on the car wouldn't regulate, and they steam in their own sweat. Meanwhile Nancy is not able to give proper directions and the couple get lost in Manhattan. They eventually turn on the navigation system, but it gets turned to French language and the duo can't understand a word it says.Nancy takes over the driving and due to the misdirection, drives straight into a seafood packing facility. The damage to the car costs $2200.They decide to walk to their hotel and on the way, they meet Andrew Lloyd Webber lookalike, who mugs them on the pretext of borrowing $5 from them to get to his Broadway show, and then taking them into a secluded corner. Luckily, Henry had saved his credit card in his sock.The couple eventually get to the Grand Mark Hotel and meet the night duty manager Mr. Mersault (John Cleese). Henry discovers that his credit card is maxed out. He figures out that Nancy had given one of his cards to their daughter Susan, when she moved out of Med school to pursue a career as an actress. Henry is also mad that Susan threw away $50K in tuition money.Since they didn't have any money, the hotel throws them out. They walk to Susan's apartment, but she is not home. Henry is yelled at for trying to steal an apple and Nancy has dogs set upon her by the suspicious NYC neighbors.They take shelter in a church, which happens to be serving food. But it turns out it is the meeting for a sexual self-help group. Nancy and Henry are asked to participate if they want to have any food. Nancy says that they haven't had sex in over 2 months and Henry says that he has been tense. Henry reveals that he was fired from his job and that he is in NYC for a job interview the following morning.Nancy remembers that she kept travelers checks in her luggage and they go back to the hotel to check if their luggage has been delivered. The luggage is not there, and the couple retires into the bar to have some trail mix. A random guy Greg (Mark McKinney) starts hitting on Nancy, when Henry is in the toilet. Greg is from LA and is about to head out for some work and will be back later that night. Nancy seduces him and gets him to give her his key.Nancy and Henry go to the room and order an expensive dinner. But Greg comes back early, and Henry has to hide. Luckily Greg only forgot his cell phone and leaves. while leaving Greg sees the dinner order coming in and then finds Henry in the room. He threatens to call the police. Henry and Nancy have to run, and they escape by climbing down the open balcony into the room below, with an open door. There Nancy finds Mr Mersault cross dressing in female customers clothes.In the process, Henry and Nancy end up destroying the hotel's electronic facade and the lights go out in the entire hotel. Nancy steals some money from the room, and they run out and get into a cab. The cab driver keeps telling them to get out, but Henry insists that he is not going anywhere. Turns out it was a stolen cab being used as a getaway car in a robbery. After a brief scuffle, the couple has to jump out of the cab in the middle of central park.Henry and Nancy have a huge fight about how they have no common interests now and that they are headed for a divorce. But later they patch up and thinks about how much fun they were, back when they were young. They start having sex in the middle of the park. Shortly thereafter the park is lit up by a nearby function, where an old lady has donated money to the mayor for their "light up the city" campaign.Henry and Nancy are chased by guards for having sex in the open. They take shelter in an abandoned cabin. The next morning Henry is arrested when he goes peeing out in the open, for public exposure.Nancy runs after Henry, but she has no bail money. She calls the hotel and speaks to Mersault. She threatens to reveal that she saw Mersault wearing a female guest's clothes and dancing in her room, if he doesn't come with bail money right away. Henry had a bad headache and accepted aspirin from a fellow inmate. But those were drugs. Going back to the hotel, Henry gets delirious and starts acting strange. Somehow Nancy gets Henry back to the hotel, where Mersault has given them a suite to get Henry ready for his interview.He somehow manages to arrive on time for his interview. Reaching the reception, he is told that the meeting was moved to 9 am and Henry is late. The receptionist called their house in Ohio and their hotel but couldn't get through. Henry is crestfallen. The executive, Ms Tobin is preparing for a client meeting and then flies to London for a week. It's over.But Nancy tells Henry not to give up. Henry snaps at the receptionist and tells her what the couple has been through in the last 24 hrs. He gets the meeting with Ms Tobin. Henry wins the room by suggesting a new tag line "Only in New York", for their new campaign for New York City. Henry draws upon his experiences in the last 24 hours to come up with the tagline. He gets the gig. Henry hires Nancy as his first employee on his own creative teamThey decide to stay in New York and go to watch Susan perform in the theatre.
  • 1999-04-02 Released:
  • N/A DVD Release:
  • N/A Box office:
  • N/A Writer:
  • Sam Weisman Director:
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