Romancing the Stone Synopsis: A mousy romance novelist sets off for Colombia to ransom her kidnapped sister, and soon finds herself in the middle of a dangerous adventure hunting for treasure with a mercenary rogue.
Romance novelist Joan Wilder has just finished her most recent book when she gets a call from her sister that she’s in trouble in Colombia. To save her sister, Joan has to travel to South America with a map that had been sent to her in the mail. With multiple people after the map, and therefore Joan, she manages to get help from an exotic bird smuggler, Jack T. Colton. The two end up running for their lives while also trying to track down a precious stone and Joan’s sister.
I had the urge to watch this movie again after The Lost City, which, while its own movie, certainly took plenty of inspiration from this Robert Zemeckis film. It has been a long time since I’ve seen Romancing the Stone and its sequel, The Jewel of the Nile, but now seemed a good time to revisit them both.
Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas come together in this action-romantic comedy adventure that is both romantic and entertaining. Turner and Douglas have incredible chemistry, which certainly helps in a movie where character development and plot give way to action sequences and chases through the jungle.
Danny DeVito is the obvious comedic relief as Ralph, one of the men who kidnaps Joan’s sister in order to retrieve the map that will bring him and his cousin, Ira, to the stone. Ralph doesn’t do much in this movie. Still, he follows Joan and Jack around until the third act, so he seems a bit superfluous, considering a legit protagonist is after the couple. Still, DeVito is funny enough that it didn’t bother me too much.
The movie moves along at a brisk pace with minimal downtime, but Jack and Joan still connect on an emotional level, which is needed. There’s plenty of witty banter between the two. While this movie is definitely heavy on the adventure chase, it’s Joan and Jack’s chemistry and burgeoning relationship in the face of danger that makes Romancing the Stone so great.
I know that this movie was compared a lot to Indiana Jones at the time (even though it was written several years prior to Raiders…), but it stands on its own in the genre. Frankly, Joan and Jack’s love story in this movie alone easily beat out every Indiana romance save for Marion Ravenwood, and I will stand by that!
Watched: 05/12/2022
Notable Song: Romancing the Stone by Eddy Grant
