Los Angeles advertising executive, expecting a promotion within his company, is instead offered an out-of-state transfer that sounds suspiciously like a demotion; he chucks his job, talks his wife into quitting her managerial position in the mall, and together they hit the highway in a newly-acquired motor home. The couple's first stop: Las Vegas! Pungent, prodding bitter-pill comedy from co-writer/director/star Albert Brooks is nervously testy and tasty, though it's just an appetizer. Brooks and writing partner Monica Johnson give us some engaging episodes on the road but, strung together, they don't make much of an impact. As Brooks' spouse, Julie Hagerty is a depressed go-alonger, though in Vegas she loses her head at the gambling table--and the couple's nest egg. When she isn't bothered by the upset, are we supposed to perceive that she's happier now being broke (freed of the past, that sort of thing)? If this is true, then the picture's ending cheats her...but Brooks and Johnson haven't thought that through. "Lost in America" has an amusing rhythm, a lightly acerbic edge, and a keen-eyed absurdist view of the world due in part to Eric Saarinen's terrific cinematography. Brooks knows instinctively how to connect directly with an audience of educated taste without pandering for their affection, but his main strengths are displayed here in snippets (when one recalls the movie a day or two later, it's usually a smattering of moments). Brooks and Johnson received the Best Screenplay award from the National Society of Film Critics but, curiously (considering the critical plaudits), the film got no love from the Academy. **1/2 from ****
Review of Lost in America
