New Year, New You: Lost In America (1985)

Albert Brooks is one of those guys whom I naturally like, but I don’t actually know all that well. I’ve seen him in films like Taxi Driver and Out of Sight, where he played memorable side characters. I loved him in Finding Nemo and Drive. He was amazing as Homer’s James Bondian boss on The Simpsons. Etc. But he’s been in a million other things, he’s made comedy albums, and most importantly (for this post anyway) he’s written and directed several underseen but beloved movies.

I would often hear film nerds talk about the films he made as a director and think to myself that I ought to watch them, but I never seemed to get around to it.  But then when I saw Lost In America show up on the Criterion Channel (as part of their Fresh Starts collection – a theme that fits in perfectly with mine), I decided to give it a go.  I’m glad I did because it is delightful. 

Brooks stars as David Howard, who has a successful job at an ad agency. His wife, Linda (Julie Hagerty) works in HR at a department store. They make good money, drive nice cars, and live in a nice house. They are successful but unsatisfied. David is up for a promotion at his job, and he’s quite sure he’ll get it. He’ll be an executive with a much larger salary. He’s so sure he’ll get it he’s already put a large down payment on a much bigger house, and he’s regularly talking to a guy about buying an expensive car. This, he thinks, will surely make him happy.

Or will it? Brooks gives David that nervous persona many of his characters have. He’s nerdy and nebbish and constantly worries. 

Of course he doesn’t get the promotion. Instead, he’s asked to move from LA to New York, where he’ll run the newly acquired Ford campaign. His boss thinks he’ll be happy with the move. He’s staying in the creative field, where he strives instead of being bored in the executive branch. But David is furious. He wanted that promotion. He deserved that promotion. That promotion would have made him fulfilled. He absolutely loses it, and his boss fires him.

But then, he has an epiphany. Maybe losing his job was the best thing for him. Maybe he was living in a rut and didn’t know it. The rat race is no place for a man like him. He talks his wife into quitting her job. They sell the house; they sell everything. They buy a big RV and make big plans to drop out of life like in Easy Rider. They’ll get back to nature. They will travel the country completely free.

The genius of this film (which was cowritten by Brooks and Monica Johnson) is that they never get anywhere. Their first destination is Las Vegas, and they spend that first night not in their RV but in a chintzy hotel where the beds are shaped like hearts (but aren’t big enough for the two of them to sleep together.)  By the morning, disaster has struck, and they have to drastically change their plans. 

There is one scene late in the film where David is looking for a job in a small town in Arizona. He goes to an employment agency and tells the man about his previous job, where he made $100,000 a year. When he explains that he’s quit his job so he could change his life, the counselor replies, “You couldn’t change your life on a hundred thousand a year?”

That’s a perfect encapsulation of the movie. These two yuppies have everything and aren’t happy. Someone with much less cannot even begin to fathom what they could be unhappy about or why they find themselves broken down in the middle of nowhere. The line delivery is also absolutely hysterical.

It was about that point in the film that I started to worry it was going to screw up the landing. There was a way they could have ended it that would have felt wrong. I don’t want to spoil how they got there or how it ends, but they did not go in that direction and it ends perfectly.

It is a film that I found more enjoyable than hilarious. I laughed at a few scenes, but mostly I just smiled with amusement. Brooks pitches the film with an ironic smile, and he’s perfectly cast against Julie Hagerty. Most of the film is just them talking, and arguing, and they are perfect together.

I’m very much looking forward to his other directorial efforts.