Directed by: Roger Donaldson
Starring: Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown, Elisabeth Shue, Lisa Manes, Gina Gershon, Ron Dean, Laurence Luckinbill, Kelly Lynch
Don't expect much depth from Cocktail, a slick, superficially entertaining movie chock full of hawking of materialism then interrupted by a typical love story. The romantic angle is not a convincing display of redemption for our protagonist Brian Flanagan (Cruise). His change of heart feels like a screenplay requirement, but still, Cocktail is worth a couple hours of your time.
Brian is a former military man who travels to New York to join the world of marketing and make millions overnight. He has no college degree, so he enrolls in business school while working as a bartender in a small bar run by Doug Coughlin (Brown), who dispenses cynical advice as much as drinks. Doug teaches Brian the ropes of bartending and apparently how to perform a juggling act with glasses, tumblers, and alcohol. The customers who pack the place watch in awe and cheer even though it takes several minutes to actually get their drinks.
Brian and Doug soon graduate to the "big time" of bartending, a flashy disco in Manhattan. This leads me to wonder: Did Doug sell his place? If so, didn't he make out pretty well financially? Brian and Doug soon fight over a woman Brian falls for, and Brian lights out for Jamaica, where he runs a small bar and hooks up with tourist Jordan Mooney (Shue), who seems like a humble artist on vacation, but we later learn comes from a rich family. On a dare from Doug, who visits on his honeymoon, Brian picks up another rich woman at the bar and the betrayed Jordan flees back to New York, with the remorseful Brian following and trying to win her back. Jordan is also pregnant, and Brian has to convince her and her disapproving father (Luckinbill) that he's a changed man.
If you don't know how this turns out, you've never seen a romantic drama before, but Cocktail isn't made to break any new ground. There isn't much deep about the performances, but they work in their own way, especially Brown, who views the world with the sole focus of getting rich or appearing to be rich. Cocktail isn't boring and although it never even attempts to become something great, it still clicks enough even if you're not fully buying the premise or the outcome.
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