Peggy Sue Got Married

Name: Peggy Sue Got Married
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance
Released: October 10, 1986
Duration: 103 min
Rating: 75
Cast: Kathleen Turner, Nicolas Cage

1986

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Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Ratings

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Peggy Sue Got Married

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Movie Details & Credits

TriStar Pictures | Release Date: October 10, 1986 | PG-13

Starring: Kathleen Turner, Nicolas Cage

Summary: Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) faints at a high school reunion. When she wakes up, she finds herself in her own past, just before she finished school.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Genre(s): Drama, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 103 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Roger Ebert

Peggy Sue Got Married is a lot of things - a human comedy, a nostalgic memory, a love story - but there are times when it is just plain creepy, because it awakens such vivid memories in us. Read full review

100

Sheila Benson

You go to Peggy Sue Got Married expecting '60s nostalgia, "a blast from the past," Buddy Holly and lime-green leisure suits. You get all that, but nothing prepares you for the rush of real emotion the film generates, for its poignance, its reassurance or its high of pure pleasure. Read full review

100

Paul Attanasio

Not since the heyday of Frank Capra, perhaps, has there been a movie that so seamlessly combines screwball comedy with get-out-your-handkerchiefs heart. Peggy Sue Got Married isn't about solving life's problems, it's about accepting them, in a world where love doesn't conquer all, but conquers enough. And in the hands of director Francis Coppola, that message makes what could have been merely a delightful lark about time travel into something much more. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

What makes this treatment unique is that the jokes aren’t so much derivative of pop culture, but are instead found in the learned wisdom of a middle-aged woman reacting to her own teenage dilemmas. Read full review

Richard Corliss

Everything finally came together under the sensitive directorial hand of, yes, Francis Coppola. The supporting cast is splendid. The film's occasional lapses never puncture the airy tone; they are easily forgiven, like Peggy Sue and her friends, whose only sin was to grow up. This prom-night balloon of a movie floats easily above the year's other exercises in '50s nostalgia. If you dare reach for it, it will land smartly in your heart. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

The film features good acting from almost everyone, the one notable exception being the annoying Cage who adopts a grating constricted voice for the role.

Pat Graham

It's grave, lumbering, arrhythmic, and bloated, an emotional hogwallow of catchpenny insights and easy sentimentality...In short, a real bagful. Read full review

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User Reviews

LamontRaymond

Jun 19, 2017

Kathleen Turner is really amazing in this film. I know she was the second choice and only got the role when Debra Winger had to bow out, but it wouldn't have been nearly as successful without her. Sure, her romantic chemistry with Nick Cage wasn't ideal, but it still worked.

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Spangle

Sep 8, 2017

If given the chance to re-live your life and change who you become, would you take it? Many would, though Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) is not given a choice, rather thrust into this decision after fainting at her 25-year high school reunion. Waking up to realize she no longer has her childrenIf given the chance to re-live your life and change who you become, would you take it? Many would, though Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) is not given a choice, rather thrust into this decision after fainting at her 25-year high school reunion. Waking up to realize she no longer has her children Scott and Beth, is still with high school boyfriend and soon to be ex-husband Charlie (Nicolas Cage), and is just five weeks away from graduating high school, Peggy Sue is given the chance to re-live her life. She can put that **** Delores (Lisa Jane Persky) in her place, rectify her main regret and sleep with hopeless Communist romantic Michael Fitzsimmons (Kevin J. O'Connor), help nerd Richard Norvik (Barry Miller) come up with new inventions before they come out by 1985, and help Charlie try to stay in music while breaking up with him at the same time, Peggy Sue takes every chance to change her life. Yet, by the end, she realizes that her life as it was - even with all of the bumps and the pain - was exactly what she wanted all along.

Accepting these imperfections in our lives is perhaps the hardest part of growing up. Constantly nagged by thoughts about what we could have changed, where we wish we were, and praying that we wake up to find our lives are different, people have coped with these what-if questions, likely, since the beginning of time. There is always something we could have changed, somebody we could have kissed, or something we could have done that, if it were done, would make us happier than we are right now. Yet, it is always a give and a take, which is what Peggy must learn. She is unhappy with Charlie and his philandering ways, but loves her children. Willing to give up anything to have her kids, the first thing she worries about when thrown back into the past is where her locket with their pictures went. No matter how tempting changing her life and avoiding the hurt that awaits her with Charlie is, there is no exception - not even with long-time regret Michael - that will make her want to give up her children or risk losing them as a result.

Peggy Sue, nonetheless, is guilty of seemingly forgetting this aspect at times, however. She desperately wants her life to be different and to have never been with Charlie, but he luckily keeps coming back to her at the exact right moment. Seemingly never realizing that to lose Charlie means she will lose her children, Peggy Sue falls victim to what many do. So caught up in regret and what-ifs, she forgets what is right in front of her eyes. Though her life has seen hardship, it is only through this experience back in 1960 that she realizes that all of it was worth it in the end because it got her the two children she adores. No matter how much Charlie may hurt her, being with him begot the best thing to happen to her. Barreling ahead at a slow pace with an unclear plot, our lives may not always be fun or fulfilling, but we all have something or somebody that makes that exact moment worth being around for and not being stuck in the past wondering what could have been. In essence, it is the classic belief that the grass is always greener on the other side. If we had somebody else's life, then we would be happier. Yet, their life is not our own and wishing otherwise will only lead to us missing out on the opportunity to be happy with those who make us truly feel happy and fulfilled.

In going back to her youth, Peggy Sue may initially be flustered, but quickly realizes that one of the most important things to alter is her relationships. Heaping praise upon her parents, enjoying the company of her grandparents, hanging out with her sister, and listening to each of them and what they have to say to her, Peggy Sue hits pause on the awkward and chaotic teenage years. Able to soak up every moment with her family that was available to her, but not appreciated due to the fact that she still had them all with her, Peggy Sue is finally able to enjoy the moments she once discounted. Using the years of her life to her advantage, she now knows that these moments are ones to savor, not disregard. In the process, she learns to re-love Charlie. Seeing him as a youthful wannabe pop star with a great voice and even better work ethic, Peggy Sue learns about the lengths that Charlie went to in order to make it, only for her to discount them entirely and constantly advocate for him to quit. By the time he does quit, she realizes it was all for her. His life goal was to be a singer and not work in his dad's appliance store. Yet, by 1985, he is just like his dad, as he runs the appliance store and chases skirts around the store all day. However, at the prospect of losing her, he drops everything in order to be her husband. Though it does not excuse his cheating on her in 1985, these moments in 1960 give her back the perspective she had lost. Now embittered by the relationship, she realizes that they not only had some "good times" together, but remembers why she loved him… Expand

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