Waking Up in Reno
Encyclopedia
Waking Up in Reno is a 2002 American comedy drama film directed by Jordan Brady
. The screenplay by Brent Briscoe
and Mark Fauser
focuses on two redneck
couples taking a road trip
from Little Rock
to Reno
to see a monster truck
rally.
restaurant where Lonnie Earl is determined to win a free dinner by consuming a 72-ounce steak and all the trimmings within an hour. Darlene longs to see the Grand Canyon
, but Lonnie Earl insists they stick to their schedule and refuses to fulfill her dream. It becomes increasingly clear Darlene is living timidly in her husband's shadow, kowtowing to his demands and accepting his verbal and emotional abuse without complaint.
In Reno, a fortune teller tells Candy she is expecting a baby, and she buys several home pregnancy test
s to see if she is right. She's overjoyed when all the results are positive, but complications arise when Roy calls Doc Tuley for the results of a fertility test
he took before leaving home. Roy is sterile, and therefore clearly not the father of Candy's child.
Darlene notices an uneasy glance between Lonnie Earl and Candy and realizes the two have been having an affair. Devastated, she treats herself to a complete and very expensive makeover and goes to see Tony Orlando
perform, determined not to let her insensitive husband rob her of this dream as well. Meanwhile, Roy is in the hotel lounge trying to make headway with Brenda, who unbeknownst to him is a high-class hooker. Eventually the two couples return to their suite, where they engage in loud arguments and fisticuffs
. The following day they discover Darlene has found the ultimate way to avenge her husband's boorish treatment of her - she has donated the SUV he intended to sell when they returned home to be destroyed by an enormous, fire-breathing Robosaurus
during the monster truck rally.
In an epilogue we learn Roy and Candy are the parents of three children, the results of the fertility test having been incorrect. Lonnie Earl and a confident Darlene are equal partners in his business, and she has become the star of the still-cheesey ads he continues to make.
of the Chicago Sun-Times
rated the film 1½ stars, calling it "another one of those road comedies where Southern roots are supposed to make boring people seem colorful". He continued, "Well, they could be, if they had anything really at risk. But the film is way too gentle to back them into a corner. They're nice people whose problems are all solved with sitcom dialogue, and the profoundly traditional screenplay makes sure that love and family triumph in the end." He thought although "the characters are pleasant" and "in some grudging way we are happy that they're happy," "nothing in Waking Up in Reno ever inspired me to think of its inhabitants as anything more than markers in a screenplay."
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times
observed, "The one thing that can be said of Waking Up in Reno is that it's rigorously consistent. Every note rings false, for writers Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser have overlooked no stereotype
s or cliché
s of small-town blue-collar speech, behavior or tastes. Because they have not drawn from life but from a zillion other contemporary middle Americana movies and TV shows, their characters are so many times removed from reality that it is hard to blame director Jordan Brady for relentlessly condescending to their characters and plot. (This picture is way too heavy-handed to pass for satire
.)"
Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
noted "the tepid script is neither satire nor farce, and the soap-opera twists are far too tame to spark the material. With the low-gear direction by Jordan Brady, you might think he has some heavy hauling to do, but the teary confessions and screechy screaming bouts are all sound and no fury . . . This half-baked production sat on Miramax's shelf for a couple of years. It's no more done now than then, merely more stale."
Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone
said the film "offers big, fat, dumb laughs that may make you hate yourself for giving in. Ah, what the hell. The whole cast, directed by Jordan Brady with no restraint, is slumming . . . Thornton plays this low-ball farce with deceptive, masterful ease. Appreciate it."
Todd McCarthy of Variety
called the film "a hillbilly romantic comedy in which the hillbillies show up but the romance and comedy never do" and "a real what-were-they-thinking effort." He added, "Given the complete lack of urgency and inspiration in the material, [the] filmmakers have tried to give their work a semblance of life by all manner of desperate means - animated maps, jumpy editing, jokey narration and slumber-arresting musical cues, to little avail."
format with audio tracks in English and French. Bonus features include commentary by director Jordan Brady and screenwriters Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser, deleted scenes with optional commentary, and The Making of Waking Up in Reno.
Jordan Brady
Jordan Brady is an American director. He wrote and directed the feature film Dill Scallion, and directed the films Confessions of an American Girl, Waking Up in Reno and The Third Wheel.Jordan Brady was also a stand-up comic in the 1980s...
. The screenplay by Brent Briscoe
Brent Briscoe
Brent Briscoe is an American actor and screenwriter.Briscoe was born in Moberly, Missouri. After finishing his education at the University of Missouri, Briscoe launched his career as a theater actor. He then segued into screenwriting and acting in feature films...
and Mark Fauser
Mark Fauser
Mark Fauser is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer who currently operates his own independent film studio called Overlook Productions....
focuses on two redneck
Redneck
Redneck is a historically derogatory slang term used in reference to poor, uneducated white farmers, especially from the southern United States...
couples taking a road trip
Road trip
A road trip is any journey taken on roads, regardless of stops en route. Typically, road trips are long distances traveled by automobile.-Pre-automobile road trips:...
from Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
to Reno
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
to see a monster truck
Monster truck
A monster truck is a pickup truck, typically styled after pickup trucks' bodies, modified or purposely built with extremely large wheels and suspension...
rally.
Plot
Lonnie Earl Dodd is a Little Rock car dealer who stars in his own cheesy television commercials. He and his wife Darlene are best friends with Roy and Candy Kirkendall, who are trying to start a family. When the two couples decide to drive cross-country to see a monster truck rally, Lonnie Earl pulls a new SUV off his lot and the four set off. En route, they stop at an Amarillo, TexasAmarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
restaurant where Lonnie Earl is determined to win a free dinner by consuming a 72-ounce steak and all the trimmings within an hour. Darlene longs to see the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
, but Lonnie Earl insists they stick to their schedule and refuses to fulfill her dream. It becomes increasingly clear Darlene is living timidly in her husband's shadow, kowtowing to his demands and accepting his verbal and emotional abuse without complaint.
In Reno, a fortune teller tells Candy she is expecting a baby, and she buys several home pregnancy test
Pregnancy test
A pregnancy test attempts to determine whether or not a woman is pregnant.These markers are found in urine and blood, and pregnancy tests require sampling one of these substances. The first of these markers to be discovered, human chorionic gonadotropin , was discovered in 1930 to be produced by...
s to see if she is right. She's overjoyed when all the results are positive, but complications arise when Roy calls Doc Tuley for the results of a fertility test
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
he took before leaving home. Roy is sterile, and therefore clearly not the father of Candy's child.
Darlene notices an uneasy glance between Lonnie Earl and Candy and realizes the two have been having an affair. Devastated, she treats herself to a complete and very expensive makeover and goes to see Tony Orlando
Tony Orlando
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis , better known as Tony Orlando, is an American show business professional, best known as the lead singer of the group Tony Orlando and Dawn in the early 1970s. Discovered by producer Don Kirshner, Orlando had songs on the charts in 1961 when he was 16, "Halfway to...
perform, determined not to let her insensitive husband rob her of this dream as well. Meanwhile, Roy is in the hotel lounge trying to make headway with Brenda, who unbeknownst to him is a high-class hooker. Eventually the two couples return to their suite, where they engage in loud arguments and fisticuffs
Bare-knuckle boxing
Bare-knuckle boxing is the original form of boxing, closely related to ancient combat sports...
. The following day they discover Darlene has found the ultimate way to avenge her husband's boorish treatment of her - she has donated the SUV he intended to sell when they returned home to be destroyed by an enormous, fire-breathing Robosaurus
Robosaurus
Robosaurus is a transforming dinosaur robot created by inventor Doug Malewicki in 1989 and is currently owned and operated by Monster Robots, Inc. Robosaurus is modeled after Transformers toys with the driver sitting in the head of the robot, and the ability to transform from a 48-foot semi trailer...
during the monster truck rally.
In an epilogue we learn Roy and Candy are the parents of three children, the results of the fertility test having been incorrect. Lonnie Earl and a confident Darlene are equal partners in his business, and she has become the star of the still-cheesey ads he continues to make.
Cast
- Natasha RichardsonNatasha RichardsonNatasha Jane Richardson was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
..... Darlene Dodd - Billy Bob ThorntonBilly Bob ThorntonBilly Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
..... Lonnie Earl Dodd - Patrick SwayzePatrick SwayzePatrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best known for his tough-guy roles, as romantic leading men in the hit films Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries. He was named by People magazine as its "Sexiest...
..... Roy Kirkendall - Charlize TheronCharlize TheronCharlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules...
..... Candy Kirkendall - Holmes OsborneHolmes OsborneHolmes Osborne is an American actor, best known for starring in Richard Kelly's films - Donnie Darko , Southland Tales and The Box . He's also played the father of Guy Patterson in the movie That Thing You Do!, and starred in the movie Bring it On. He has made appearances in TV shows such as...
..... Doc Tuley - Penélope CruzPenélope CruzPenélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...
..... Brenda
Critical reception
Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
rated the film 1½ stars, calling it "another one of those road comedies where Southern roots are supposed to make boring people seem colorful". He continued, "Well, they could be, if they had anything really at risk. But the film is way too gentle to back them into a corner. They're nice people whose problems are all solved with sitcom dialogue, and the profoundly traditional screenplay makes sure that love and family triumph in the end." He thought although "the characters are pleasant" and "in some grudging way we are happy that they're happy," "nothing in Waking Up in Reno ever inspired me to think of its inhabitants as anything more than markers in a screenplay."
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
observed, "The one thing that can be said of Waking Up in Reno is that it's rigorously consistent. Every note rings false, for writers Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser have overlooked no stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s or cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
s of small-town blue-collar speech, behavior or tastes. Because they have not drawn from life but from a zillion other contemporary middle Americana movies and TV shows, their characters are so many times removed from reality that it is hard to blame director Jordan Brady for relentlessly condescending to their characters and plot. (This picture is way too heavy-handed to pass for satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
.)"
Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
noted "the tepid script is neither satire nor farce, and the soap-opera twists are far too tame to spark the material. With the low-gear direction by Jordan Brady, you might think he has some heavy hauling to do, but the teary confessions and screechy screaming bouts are all sound and no fury . . . This half-baked production sat on Miramax's shelf for a couple of years. It's no more done now than then, merely more stale."
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
said the film "offers big, fat, dumb laughs that may make you hate yourself for giving in. Ah, what the hell. The whole cast, directed by Jordan Brady with no restraint, is slumming . . . Thornton plays this low-ball farce with deceptive, masterful ease. Appreciate it."
Todd McCarthy of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called the film "a hillbilly romantic comedy in which the hillbillies show up but the romance and comedy never do" and "a real what-were-they-thinking effort." He added, "Given the complete lack of urgency and inspiration in the material, [the] filmmakers have tried to give their work a semblance of life by all manner of desperate means - animated maps, jumpy editing, jokey narration and slumber-arresting musical cues, to little avail."
Box office
The film opened in 197 theaters in the United States and Canada on October 25, 2002. On its opening weekend it grossed $108,930, an average of $552 per screen, and ranked #45 at the box office. It was pulled from release after four weeks.Home media
Miramax Home Entertainment released the Region 1 DVD on April 8, 2003. The film is in anamorphic widescreenAnamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
format with audio tracks in English and French. Bonus features include commentary by director Jordan Brady and screenwriters Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser, deleted scenes with optional commentary, and The Making of Waking Up in Reno.