In the 1960s, Suzette (Goldie Hawn) and Vinnie (Susan Sarandon) were given the nickname "The Banger Sisters" by rock musician and songwriter Frank Zappa. The two were notorious groupies caught up in the halcyon days of rock n' roll. Then they went their separate ways. Over the years, Suzette stayed as close as she could to the music and wound up working as a bartender in a Sunset Strip Club in Hollywood. Vinnie became Lavinia and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to become the wife of Raymond (Robin Thomas), a very successful corporate lawyer. They live in a luxurious house with their two daughters, Hannah (Erika Christensen), valedictorian of her class, and Ginger (Eva Amurri), a very spoiled adolescent with a nervous tic in her throat. Lavinia is well-known in the community for her charity work. At home, she is a strict and controlling mother, trying desperately not to have her daughters make the same mistakes she did.
Joan Chittister has observed: "The loss of a friend is not a gap in the environment, it is a gouge in the heart forever. Nothing replaces a lost friend because when a friend goes, a door in my own life closes that can never be opened by anyone else again." That is certainly true in this frolicsome comedy written and directed by Bob Dolmon. The essence of the story came to him while listening to the lyrics of "Stoned Immaculate" by Jim Morrison of the Doors: "One summer night, going to the pier I ran into two young girls. The blonde was called Freedom, the dark one Enterprise." Suzette and Vinnie have taken different roads — one choosing a life of adventure and independence and the other, family responsibility.
Goldie Hawn is delightful as the free-spirited Suzette who heads off to seek the financial help of her friend after being fired from her bartender job. On the way to Phoenix, she hooks up with Harry (Geoffrey Rush), an idiosyncratic writer from Los Angeles who after years on the West Coast is returning home a failure, just as his father predicted. Suzette takes this loser under her wings and treats him to the first sex he's had in ten years. She also inspires him to some of the best writing he's done for quite a while. Her remedial work continues when she rescues Hannah from a drug-induced stupor at the motel on prom night.
When the two Banger sisters meet after years apart, the reunion is chilly. That's Lavinia's way. Susan Sarandon is just right as the uptight mother who is frightened that Suzette will blow her cover and ruin the new life she has fashioned for herself.
This is a winning comedy with its wry observations about long-lived friendships, the ways in which we all lose track of ourselves by trying to please others, and the healing often brought into our lives by oddballs who float from place to place touching people with their honesty and vitality. Relax and let the magic of The Banger Sisters work its voodoo spell upon you. As a special bonus, fans of Jim Morrison and the Doors will appreciate all the references to him in the storyline, not to mention one of his ballads on the soundtrack.
