Paper Moon

The con man movie is a fairly limited genre. It's always fun to watch the con artist at work, but as clever as these characters can be, there are only so many tricks the filmmakers can play on the audience before we start to recognize them. After Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, it seemed like every con man movie ended with the con man himself getting conned. I'm sure that happened before D.R.S. too, but that's the earliest one I remember seeing that happened in. It was funny the once, but felt lazy and dissatisfying every time afterward. I'm looking at you, Matchstick Men!

Paper Moon probably needs no introduction, but here's a quick one anyway: It's a charming comedy from the 1970's that stars Ryan and Tatum O'Neal as a depression-era father-daughter con team. 9-year-old Tatum won an Oscar for it, and it was well deserved, because she really does own this movie.

Paper Moon is one of those classic movies that has eluded me for years. It's always nice to get to sit down and watch one of those. I had never seen a Peter Bogdanovich film. For whatever reason, when I was watching all the movies by those seventies guys, I passed him by. My theory: I had prior knowledge that while Coppola, Altman, Allen, Lucas, Scorsese, Friedkin, etc. were drawing heavily from the films of Europe and Asia for their inspiration, Bogdanovich looked to America's past, emulating the films he saw when he was a kid, instead of some foreign new wave. At the time I was watching all these directors, I hadn't really gotten into American films of the 30's and 40's, so I guess I just bypassed Bogdanovich. Now I've matured a little, seen and enjoyed a lot more of those old movies, and my mind is more open, I guess.

So, anyway, back to Paper Moon:

Ryan O'Neal stars as Mose, a guy in the midwest in the 1930's, who runs the old bible salesman grift. I say the "old" grift, because I swear I've seen it in something before, but I don't remember where. An old fling of his dies and he stops at the funeral to pay his respects, only to be tasked with the chore of taking her daughter, Addie, to extended family in Missouri. They suspect he might be the father (they have the same chin), but he vehemently denies it. We, of course, go into the movie with the knowledge that they're real life father and daughter, so the audience has no doubt of the truth. And they do have the same chin.

They give him $200 to get her there, and he quickly squanders it, without realizing that she knew about the money too. This leads to a hilarious showdown at a Coney Island diner where she demands her money back. He folds to her stubborn demand, thus putting the two of them on equal ground. Mose takes Addie on the road with him and uses the bible grift to raise the cash to pay her back. He soon realizes that Addie is clever and observant, far more observant than he is, and they become a team.

Ryan and Tatum O'Neal are really fun to watch play off each other. Their chemistry as father and daughter is real, and the fun they're having is infectious. My favorite chunk of the movie is when Mose picks up a woman at a carnival (Madeline Kahn). Addie can tell she's bad news, and feels threatened by the lack of attention she's getting, so she conspires an elaborate scheme to get rid of her.

Bogdanovich shot Paper Moon in black and white, as a throwback to the comedies of the 30's. He didn't go all the way with the cinematography, though. The camerawork is much more fluid than it was back then, and as a whole the movie looks and feels like a mix of the old and the new. It's also loaded with that snappy brand of old-timey dialogue, and a seemingly obsessive attention to period detail in the production design. I don't feel like the movie was particularly groundbreaking like the films of many of Bogdanovich's contemporaries, but a movie doesn't have to be groundbreaking to be great. Sometimes traditional is the way to go.

I'm glad I finally saw Paper Moon. It was a fun little conman comedy with a lot of heart and a satisfying ending that didn't make me feel like I, too, was getting conned.