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A palace can be a place that dances in our imaginations, where princesses and princes live in luxury beyond our comprehension. But they can also be prisons, where the unfortunate are locked away from freedom. White Palace is a 1990 film depicting the ancient clash of nobility and commoner—and how they struggle with the prison cells in which they each live.
Nora Baker’s (Susan Sarandon) White Palace is the noisy slider-burger franchise where she works the cash register. She’s a middle-aged alcoholic who has always dealt with life with steely-eyed dispatch and a sharp tongue—at least until Max shows up. Max Baron (James Spader) is a privileged young man whose “palace” is the massive contemporary home where he’s been existing—not living—for the two years since his wife died in an accident. Everything’s untouched, his clothing carefully aligned in his perfect closet.
One night, Max is in charge of picking up burgers at the local White Palace. In his spit-polished best, he blasts Nora in front of a Saturday night capacity crowd over a supposed discrepancy of a few missing sliders. She blasts him back, and their buried pain erupts into an all-out burger brawl.
Later that night, both characters land in the same bar, where they reluctantly share a drink. The chemistry builds from there, and so does the mess of creating a relationship out of their wounds, their December-May age difference, and their oh-so-different worlds.
A mismatch like this always starts in heat and heads for trouble once the characters finally come up for air—and White Palace is no exception. It quickly turns into a clichéd country song: he’s opera and she’s Oakridge boys; he’s OCD and she’s Oscar Meyer. During one roll on the living room floor, he pulls an old Ding Dong off his derriere.
Except for the twist on the characters’ ages—which was a big issue in pre-cougar 1990—this is a fairly conventional chick flick. What is enjoyable is watching Susan Sarandon play the role that she always does so well: a kick-ass, hard-bitten woman—in this case, with her vulnerability hidden deeper than in many of the other roles she’s played. James Spader’s Max comes across as wooden-strident rather than repressed-obsessive. It takes some strong acting chops to handle that difference, and he’s not quite on target here. As a result, I was never fully convinced of their chemistry. The film’s steamy at the beginning, but those encounters come across as though they’d been mechanically orchestrated to ensure that important R rating.
There are plenty of redeeming scenes to make White Palace enjoyable, though. Sarandon as Nora at an upscale party is unforgettable. Eileen Brennan shines in a sweet supporting role. And there are guest appearances by Jason Alexander and Kathy Bates. So if you enjoy a romantic story with a culture-clash storyline, this might be a good choice for your weekend.
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