Mannequin Review

Mannequin
A pauperish artist, Jonathan (McCarthy), is glad of shop window design work in a department store. A modern day Frankenstein, he builds himself the perfect mannequin who, somehow, comes to life after two millenia of limbo and lavishes all that pent-up love on him. The two of them spend their evenings refitting shop windows, christening said displays, and evading the boss's attentions.

by Gavin Bainbridge |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1987

Running Time:

90 minutes

Certificate:

PG

Original Title:

Mannequin

Apparently the idea for this film came to Gottlieb as he passed by a store window and thought, I wonder what would happen if that mannequin came to life. Hardly the greatest revelation in moviemaking history, but at least it acquits this film of its total sell-out feel.

McCarthy plays the struggling artist who finds his muse in the disjointed limbs of a mannequin who magically comes to life. That his shop-window efforts were an achievement this ‘serious artist’ could be proud of is almost as far-fetched as the plot development that his resurrected mannequin is actually an ancient Egyptian.

Pleasantries aside, the two of them go about nothing more exciting than redesigning window layouts to the phenomenally successful backing track of ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.’ This, along with Cattrall’s star quality, is the only allure of an otherwise idiotic fantasy.

A pallid shopfloor fairytale with absolutely no magic to speak of, other than the spark in Kim Cattrall's eyes.
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