Meet Larry in the Movie Mr. Destiny
Does the movie, Mr. Destiny sound familiar? Yes! It’s a movie that was written by James Orr and Jim Cruinkshank, and also directed by James Orr (produced back in 1990). It’s a phenomenal, magical comedy that really makes you ask yourself the “movie’s tagline”: “Would you give up everything you haveâÂ?¦for everything you’ve ever wanted?”
In the movie, Larry Burrows (played by James Belushi) is pretty much a middle-class citizen that is married to a wonderful wife. He and his wife both work for the same very large corporation, but they are small-time workers in the firm. Larry has a best friend that he’s known since grade school, Clip Metzler. Clip is somewhat of goofy guy. He’s always trying to get everyone to laugh, and he tries to cheer Larry up whenever he’s in the dumps. Larry has a nice, middle-class home, drives a “station wagon”, and has a family dog named, “Sammy”. This is his ordinary life. It sounds like he has it decently good, but on his 35th birthday everything seems to go wrong, and Larry doesn’t seem to believe everything in this life is that great.
When his day starts out, he doesn’t have any cereal in the morning, as well as coffee when he gets to work. Then, he gets fired from work. His car breaks down on his way home (in front of a bar he’s never seen before), and it seems that everyone has forgot his birthday.
At this time, still towards the beginning of the movie, Larry narrates by saying, “Destiny is a pretty big concept when you think about it. Where you are in life, how you got there, what would have happened if one thing or another had been different. To be honest, I never gave it much thought, myself, until today, June 14th, my 35th birthday, and without a doubt, the strangest day in my life. Do you remember the old story that starts, This guy goes into a bar? Well, I’m the guy, and here’s the story.”
Desperately, Larry walks into the bar in order to use the payphone, so he can call a tow truck, but he’s in for an enormous surprise when he meets the “bartender”, Mike. As Larry is sitting there waiting for his tow to arrive, he has his usual drink, a light beer – no glass, and he starts talking to Mike. Larry tells him about the horrible day he’s been having, and how he thinks his life would be so much different if he would have hit a baseball in a championship game when he was in high school. (exactly 20 years earlier, on his 15th birthday) “If I would have swung for that ball just a half a second sooner,” he proclaims, “I would be King”!
Mike, now coming off as a very mysterious man, offers Larry a special mix drink, in which he calls, “Spilt Milk”. Well, this, spilt milk, spins Larry’s life in a whole new direction, when he drinks it.
He ends up finding himself with a whole new life; nothing ordinary about it. He is the president of the company that he had once worked for. He is the husband, not of his once had, boring wife, but of the owner’s beautiful daughter. He lives in a mansion, and owns numerous amounts of vintage Hot-Rod cars. He is so confused and baffled by this at first, he thinks it’s a joke. But on top of that, even more arcane, Mike the “bartender” keeps appearing places here and there. So, one of the times that he shows up, Larry decides to ask Mike this question, “How can my life change so much after hitting one stinking baseball?” In which, Mike explains, “Every incident in a person’s life effects everything else that follows itâÂ?¦until you find yourself – exactly – where – you are!” So, in that momentâÂ?¦that Larry actually, now, had hit the baseball, everything else in his life had changed right along with it.
Larry asks Mike, “What, Are you some kind of angel, or something?”. Mike enlightens him that he is just simply the voice that makes suggestions when he is confronted with life’s decisions.
You must see the movie, to find out the rest of the story, because it is too great to miss. “Mr. Destiny” is PG-13, and is a down to earth, heartfelt comedy in which makes you stop and think: “Would my life be different if I had chosen chocolate ice cream over vanilla?”
