{"id":12989,"date":"2025-09-13T12:29:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12989"},"modified":"2025-09-13T12:29:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:29:20","slug":"passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/09\/13\/passed-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Passed Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Passed Away <\/strong>(1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hollywood\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Charlie Peters\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Charlie Peters\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Richard Gibbs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Arthur Albert\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 24, 1992 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bob Hoskins, Blair Brown, Tim Curry, Frances McDormand, William Petersen, Pamela Reed, Peter Riegert, Maureen Stapleton, Nancy Travis, Jack Warden, Teri Polo, Deborah Rush, Diana Bellamy, Don Brockett, Patrick Breen, Sara Rue, Tristan Tait, Jayce Bartok, Dan Futterman, Helen Lloyd Breed, Sally Gracie, Louis Mustillo, Patricia O\u2019Connell, Dylan Baker, Jim Corr.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Box Office: $4M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s not that they don\u2019t make them like Passed Away<\/strong> anymore; they simply stopped making them for theatrical release. Movies of this kind now premiere on streaming services like Netflix because the makers know they don\u2019t stand a ghost of a chance at multiplexes. Who would possibly choose a low-key ensemble dramedy over some big FX-laden noisefest? I\u2019m raising my hand as I type these words with the other.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I went to see Passed Away<\/strong> when it opened in April \u201992. It was an impulse decision after I found a free AMC pass in my wallet. I forgot I had it. My friend Julie and I just got out of the forgettable crime-thriller White Sands. We had just enough time to grab the tickets before it started. I was planning to see it anyway. It had a lot of good actors in it, but the real draw for this Rocky Horror devotee was Tim Curry. He makes everything he\u2019s in watchable, even absolute dreck like Congo (1995).<\/p>\n

\u00a0The story centers on the Scanlan family, an Irish-American clan mourning the loss of their patriarch Jack (Warden, Used Cars). His death makes eldest son Johnny (Hoskins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), a tree surgeon going through a mid-life crisis, the new head of the family. And what a bunch they are! His brother Frank (Petersen, Manhunter), a labor leader, is an obtuse, image-conscious sort who plans to take over the family business. He\u2019s like a dumbed-down version of a Kennedy. Rebellious sister Terry (Reed, Kindergarten Cop) shows up with her conceited ex-husband Boyd (Curry). They\u2019ve been divorced for four years and she still hasn\u2019t told anybody they split up. Sister Nora (McDormand, Fargo) really is a sister as in nun. Based in Latin America, she\u2019s also something of an activist. She brings a political refugee home with her. Naturally, INS comes looking for the guy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are many other characters in Passed Away<\/strong> like Johnny\u2019s wife Amy (Brown, Continental Divide) who doesn\u2019t understand his sudden need for adventure and Peter (Riegert, Animal House), the funeral home embalmer who still carries a torch for Terry (they knew each other in high school). There are assorted children including Frank\u2019s pregnant (and unmarried) daughter Rachel (Polo, Meet the Parents), sourpuss aunts and family friends. The guest that really stands out is Cassie (Travis, So I Married an Axe Murderer), a mystery woman who shows up at the wake, held at the family home at the insistence of the widow Mary (Stapleton, Cocoon). Nobody knows who she is. Everybody assumes she was the deceased\u2019s mistress. Johnny becomes intrigued by her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Written and directed by Charlie Peters (Music from Another Woman), Passed Away<\/strong> is a pretty good movie. It\u2019s uneven in tone; it struggles a bit in balancing the comedic and dramatic. At the same time, it understands that there\u2019s humor to be found in any situations where family comes together. The Scanlans are just this side of dysfunctional. It\u2019s not that they don\u2019t get along; it\u2019s not a Jerry Springer scenario. They just get on each other\u2019s nerves, no different from any other family really. Frank\u2019s wife (Rush, My Blue Heaven) goes around the house putting sticky notes on everything she wants before the body is even cold. Terry resents that Nora was always seen as \u201cthe good daughter\u201d. Boyd, not even a family anymore, is only there begrudgingly. He feels he has nothing in common with his former in-laws. Then, of course, you get unbelievable situations (e.g. having to temporarily relocate Jack\u2019s body, Rachel going into labor at the worst time possible) that can only happen to this family. Haven\u2019t we all said something like this at one time? It\u2019s a completely relatable situation even at its most unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When a movie has this many characters, some of them are going to go underdeveloped. That is to say, they\u2019re not going to be too far developed beyond name and personal crisis. The only one afforded any real development is Johnny. He\u2019s going through that phase where he reflects on life and asks what he has to show for it. Hoskins crushes it, but he was one of those actors who always did that. He delivers a solid performance as does the rest of the cast. What\u2019s truly great is that they\u2019re in perfect step as a team. They never seem to be tripping over each other as is sometimes the case with films with large casts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I hadn\u2019t watched Passed Away<\/strong> since the early 90s. It\u2019s still as good as I remember. I didn\u2019t realize that was Sara Rue (The Big Bang Theory) playing Johnny\u2019s youngest daughter Megan. She\u2019s not in it much, but she leaves a bit of an impression. I wish Peters had done more with Stapleton, the mother who\u2019s wiser and more aware of things than they know. She gets off a few good lines. I like that the movie is genuinely heartfelt with its message about accepting family full-on, faults and all. It does so with a light touch. It\u2019s not perfect, but neither is anybody in any family. It\u2019s kind of fitting actually.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passed Away (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hollywood\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Charlie Peters\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Charlie Peters\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Richard Gibbs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Arthur Albert\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 24, 1992 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bob Hoskins, Blair Brown, Tim Curry, Frances McDormand, William Petersen, Pamela Reed, Peter Riegert, Maureen Stapleton, Nancy Travis, Jack Warden, Teri Polo, Deborah Rush, Diana Bellamy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Passed-Away-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12989"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13026,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12989\/revisions\/13026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}