If you follow my work, you’ll know one thing… nostalgia is my happy place. I love a good period piece, especially if it is set in the 1950s. As an 80s baby, that means that I’m happy as a clam when watching movies like Back to the Future and The Rocketeer. This was how I grew up! So, as I sat down to first-time-watch Peggy Sue Got Married, I wasn’t sure how I missed this adorable little picture. On the surface, this movie is very me.
Peggy Sue Got Married follows the story of a middle aged woman (Kathleen Turner) who, after passing out during her high school reunion, finds herself transported back to her senior year in 1960 when her life was speeding towards its eventual path. Nicolas Cage, Catherine Hicks, Kevin J. O’Connor, Barry Miller, Joan Allen and Jim Carrey co-star in the movie. Francis Ford Coppola directs Peggy Sue Got Married from a script by Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner.
Peggy Sue Got Married is another example of the post World War II nostalgia boom which hit U.S. pop culture like a freight train throughout the 1980s. In fact, the movie landed in theaters just a year after that other nostalgic time-traveling film that most people remember, Back to the Future. With each passing decade, the next generation takes its turn to tell the stories of their childhood and in the 1980s, it was the 1950s babies reveling in their youth.
In fact, Peggy Sue Got Married is even more of a love letter to the early 1960s then Back to the Future was for 1955. As Turner’s Peggy Sue is transported back to her adolescence, Francis Ford Coppola joyfully revels in the time period. This is the 1960 that we see in television shows of the time… with an even better soundtrack, that is. Peggy Sue Got Married is a doo-wop fan’s goldmine. If nothing else, and you like the music of this period, check this one out. I think I had almost every song in the soundtrack on my Spotify queue already.
Now with that being said, I found myself pulled back from the narrative a bit in its structure. We all know the problem with teen movies… when you have twenty year olds playing the kids, it starts to show. This time out, the kids are closer to thirty. Granted, the script’s structure, which spans more than twenty years is unforgiving. Nothing can be flicked aside as a flashback. Everyone is heavily involved throughout the script… despite how distracting it sometimes feels during the 1960 narrative.
However, where Peggy Sue Got Married does shine is in its exploration of a woman’s story at a time when they were often pigeonholed as happy housewives. As Peggy Sue, Turner is a woman emerging from happy housewife syndrome. Through her eyes, we see an image of post-World War II suburbia that didn’t end cleanly. Sometimes the story doesn’t have a happy ending. With so many crisp and clean images of the 1950s and 1960s, it’s a joy to see one which shows people more as the flawed humans we all are in reality.
While post World War II is nostalgia is not an uncommon area of exploration, how often is a woman the focus of the story? Even as late as the 1980s revival, the experiences of young men tends to be prioritized. Sure, we all watched Leave it to Beaver and Dennis the Menace, but how often can you remember a girl who played a role which wasn’t a crush, a first kiss or a cootie carrier (ewwww!). In exploring a nostalgic story where a woman is the main character, Peggy Sue Got Married is waging a small fight. This isn’t a particularly adventurous or overly progressive film, but narratively, it is unique.
With that being said though, I struggled mightily with the story as the script entered its third act…
Spoilers coming, obviously…
As the story develops and we spend so much time with Peggy Sue, it’s easy to get pulled into her story of self-discovery. She’s getting a brand new chance on adolescence with an eye for the mistakes she’s made. This becomes increasingly noticeable when considering the… colorful… performance Cage gives as her husband Charlie. However, as the second act ends, the movie hits a mighty problem… how to get out of this unique and strange time travel narrative?
We’ve spent three quarters of the movie with Peggy Sue and it’s easy to align with her perspective. So, as the movie comes to an end, it turns out she had a heart attack. Her life was flashing before her eyes and as she looks back, she learns she does in fact love her husband. I found myself befuddled. In the choice to get the main couple back together in the last five minutes, the narrative goes against the first two acts of character development. Has Charlie really changed? This remains to be seen. While Peggy Sue returns with a brand new perspective, how do we know things will really be any different?
Spoilers Over!!
All in all, Peggy Sue Got Married was a first time watch that I’m really not sure how I missed. Sure, there were elements throughout which I did struggle with. This isn’t a perfect movie. Very few are. This is an ambitious story and not every metaphorical rocket is able to land on the moon. However, with each of these moments, there were scenes that made me smile and ones which really did strike a chord. It’s delightful to see a movie in the often male dominated 1980s trying to tell a woman’s narrative, especially through such beautiful rose colored nostalgia goggles.
Peggy Sue Got Married is available, here!
Pierce Sisters Productions 