PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (Francis Ford Coppola, 103 min, color, 1986)
What’s Happening: Middle-aged heroine awakens as her 18-year-old self
Famous For: Coppola’s most sensitive film
It’s also his most nostalgic film, taking the heroine back to 1960 when Coppola and his generation would be in high school or college. The cars, clothes, music, furnishings, even little advertisements, are all part of the appeal.
We empathize strongly with Peggy, not least because of an incredible performance from Kathleen Turner. Even at the opening (in 1985 before the 1960 re-awakening), Turner conveys anxiousness and vulnerability constantly at odds with hope and yearning. She is torn one way or another, between two eras, between two minds, between two men, between desire for change and fear of inevitability.
Perhaps we can relate Peggy’s situation to Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea, the book argued over during her English class. As Santiago goes out to sea, Peggy goes back to her past. As Santiago catches the fish, Peggy achieves unresolved desires and learns about people anew. As Santiago returns home with mere bones, Peggy reawakens as her old self to find only a few things have changed.
Yet we admire them both. If much in our lives is inevitable, we are no less heroic when we strive and struggle for change.
I’m probably making the film sound too serious. It’s actually quick and funny, and very impressive in how it straddles multiple genres: adult drama, high school, and fantasy.
While Turner’s performance has been universally lauded, Nicolas Cage’s has caused controversy. Coppola’s nephew and only 21 at the time, Cage insisted on overplaying the role and speaking in a squeaky voice.
Additionally, Cage was difficult to work with and was criticized by Turner for near-criminal conduct during production (apparently her accusations were exaggerated). But, like him or not, Nicolas Cage can act. I liked him because he seemed as sincere in his anguish as he was annoying in his whining.
Rounding out the great cast are Barry Miller (the guy who fell from the bridge in Saturday Night Fever) as the science nerd who later makes it big, Jim Carrey (before Ace Ventura) as one of Charlie’s bandmates, and Kevin J. O’Connor (the mechanic from Deep Rising) as the young Beat poet who connects strongly with Peggy, at least for one night. Coppola’s daughter Sofia (13 at the time) plays Peggy’s younger sister; in 1999 she directed Turner in The Virgin Suicides.
Dion DiMucci (from Dion and the Belmonts) appears briefly on a television, and as I write this in summer 2025, Dion at age 86 still records and performs regularly.
Action: 6. Gore: 1. Sex: 6. Quality: 10. Camp: 6.
Don’t miss: Carradine’s farewell
Quotable exclamation: “No more Jell-O for me, Mom!”
Article text copyright 2025 David Elroy Goldweber
Claws & Saucers 
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