Movie Review – Bagdad Cafe

Bagdad Cafe (1987) – On the same day that Brenda (CCH Pounder), a disgruntled cafe owner in the middle of nowhere, throws her good for nothing husband out, a German tourist has a fight with her husband and finds herself at the Bagdad Cafe.  Jasmine (Marianne Sägebrecht) speaks very little English and has no idea what she is going to do, stuck in the middle of nowhere with her husband’s suitcase.  Along the way Brenda and Jasmine will change each other and the life of everyone at the Bagdad Cafe.

There is no doubt that this is a strange little movie.  But it’s strange in all the right ways.  Pounder’s Brenda is faced with utter failure in every direction.  Her husband is a good for nothing, space cadet.  The rest of her family is her music obsessed son ( he plays classical preludes endlessly on a piano in the cafe) and a high school aged daughter who is willing to hook up with each and every man that comes her way.  The motel connected to the cafe has two regular guests before Jasmine arrives.  One is an eccentric, retired Hollywood set painted (played with delightful weirdness by Jack Palance, of all people) and a beautiful tattoo artist with a steady stream of trucker customers who get into her borderline S and M techniques (Christine Kaufmann has exactly one line in the movie).

In the midst of this come Jasmine with a rather other worldly sense of calm.  She will draw the best out of everyone, usually against Brenda’s wishes and instincts.  There’s no magical underpinnings here to the change, Jasmine’s magic is simply a matter of making the connections that Brenda has worked so hard to avoid.

The movie is really belongs entirely to the two female leads.  Marianne Sägebrecht apparently spoke very little English when the movie was made which gives a level of reality to her scenes that would be hard to create.  Pounder is rapidly becoming a character actor favorite of mine.  Her extensive career on television and the movies shows through with a command of her role.

As I watched it I realized that this is one of a trio of female “buddy movies” for me.  It goes along with both “Mystic Pizza” and “The Spitfire Grill”.  I don’t seem to have reviewed “Mystic Pizza” yet but I do have a review of “The Spitfire Grill” coming next week.  Each center on female stories with strong leads, revolving around stories of redemption and where the men are decidedly second tier roles.  As I’ve stated here before I have ZERO use for the term “chick flick”.  These are classic “buddy movies” with great female story lines.

Not a standard Hollywood movie, and one that utterly lacks a Hollywood ending, this is well worth your time to watch.  I think you will come away as charmed as all the residents of the Cafe.

Rating – **** Recommended