Big Business is a 1988 comedy film directed by Jim Abrahams, starring Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin as two sets of mismatched identical twins.
The film starts in 1948 when two pairs of Identical twin sisters are born at a hospital in the town of Jupiter Hollow, West Virginia, one to a local family (the Ratliffs), one to a multi-millionare couple passing through town, the Sheltons (who also buy the local factory). A near-sighted nurse accidentally mixes them up so each family leaves with one of their daughters, and one of the other's. For added confusion, both pairs of twins get named Rose and Sadie. Forty years later, Sadie Shelton is preparing to shut down the plant in Jupiter Hollow, while the Ratliff sisters travel to the city to try and stop the sale. Hilarity Ensues as the twins start narrowly missing each other.
This film contains examples of:
- Accent Slip-Up: During the breakfast scene, the Sheltons run into the Ratliffs individually. Sadie S. and Rose S. are puzzled why their "sisters" have different accents.Rose S.: We're gonna set things raht?Sadie S.: "The meetin"? Why are you worried about "the meetin"?
- Affably Evil: Fabio Labrici seems a friendly guy but he is also a cutthroat businessman who relishes in doing illegal activities. This is what attracts Sadie S. to him.
- Age Insecurity: Sadie S. does not like being reminded that she is approaching middle age like Rose S.Sadie S.: "You're dreaming about growing old in the country while other women your age..."Rose S. "Our age."Sadie S.: "Don't interrupt!"
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Rose R. is prone to this.
- She complains about all the noise, smog, crowds, muggers, sex fiends and politicians on the limo ride to Manhattan.
- She complains during breakfast about Moramax trying to bribe them, then handing them their plans to strip mine Jupiter Hollow and overcharging them for pancakes.
- Aside Glance: The homeless man looks at the camera after meeting his rich twin.
- Awful Wedded Life: Mr. and Mrs. Shelton in the prologue. He had to bribe her to have children.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Graham Shelbourne acts as the velvet glove to Sadie S's iron fist but he is every bit as nasty as her.
- Blatant Lies: Sadie Shelton assures her sister and the board of her company that the residents of Jupiter Hollow want to close down the furniture company right before a Gilligan Cut to the fair which is raising money to protest the closure.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Sadie Shelton's son Jason (which is part of why she divorced his father). When he mistakes Sadie Ratliff for his mom in a store and she disciplines him, this leads to his father developing some feelings for her (although he does think it's his ex-wife).
- Camp Gay: Chuck and Graham are fairly flamboyant.
- Camping a Crapper: Chuck and Graham are told by Roone that the Ratliffs are in the ladies room, so they all wait outside. Chuck thinks its humiliating.
- Changeling Fantasy: For Sadie R. it is.Sadie R.: Am I rich now?
- Company Town: Jupiter Hollow is run lock, stock and barrel by the Hollowmade Furniture Company, with the local hospital only being accessible to Hollowmade employees. During the Distant Prologue, when a wealthy woman is in labor, and is refused admittance to the hospital, her husband races to the house of the owner and buys the company from him on the spot. Decades later, this becomes more detrimental as the Sheltons consider selling the factory.
- Cool Aunt: Rose Shelton happily plays with her nephew when his father brings him by the office.
- Country Mouse: Roone is a dim, good-natured, small-town West Virginian who is prone to Fish out of Water moments in New York.
- Crazy Homeless People: The homeless guy hanging around the front of the Plaza is the first to notice the strange twin shenanigans going on. He meets his doppelganger at the end of the movie.
- Daddy's Girl: Sadie Ratliffe likes duck sculptures just like their late daddy Garth used to make for her.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Sadie Shelton strives to be ruthless in business just like her late father Hunt.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Chuck can't help but lear at Roone's physique.
- Establishing Character Moment: All four of the main characters.
- When a secretary yells that Sadie is arriving at the office, all of the employees panic and try to look busy. Sadie then marches in, being a Mean Boss and Corrupt Corporate Executive (she resents spending so much money on making sure products are safe) while mentioning that she was buying stock before she turned 13.
- Rose Shelton arrives at the office with a stray dog she just adopted, politely greets the receptionist, forgets where a meeting is being held, and talks about how nice a simple life would be. She even apologizes to the dog, establishing that she is an Extreme Doormat.
- Rose Ratliff makes a fiery speech at a county fair denouncing the Sheltons' company.
- Sadie Ratliff sings a song at a fundraiser and loves being the center of attention.
- Establishing Series Moment: The movie's use of misunderstandings as its source of humor is established when the nurse who delivers the Shelton and Ratliff sisters gave one of her patients a urine sample instead of apple cider to drink.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Sadie Ratliff loves fancy dresses and singing before a crowd, but also knows how to wrestle a hog.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Rose and Sadie Ratliff wear several purple dresses and are nice women out to save the jobs of their neighbors.
- Industrialized Evil: The strip mining operation being done to Jupiter Hollow by Moramax. Symbolized by the digging machine which is gouging a hole in the countryside.
- Insistent Terminology: The Sheltons say "tee-tee" as a euphemism for going to the bathroom.Sadie R.: Rose, I have to visit the toilet.Rose S: Well, we better hurry. The meeting, and never say toilet. Say tee-tee.Sadie S.: I have to go tee-tee.Rose R: What are you talking about, go visit the toilet?
- Karma Houdini: Sadie Shelton's plan to get rid of Jupiter Hollow fails but she still ends up with Fabio and they ride off to do more awful things.
- Kill and Replace: Sadie Ratliff thought that Rose and Sadie Shelton are robots and this is their plan.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: The Ratliffs had about eight kids even before Rose and Sadie were born.
- MegaCorp: Moramax.Rose S.: I may be pre-periodic and I may be hysterical. So what?Sadie S.: So there are drugs for those things, and we make most of them!
- Nice Guy: Roone Dimmick and Jay Marshall, the two Sadie's love interests.
- Old Retainer: Harlan, the Shelton's long suffering chauffeur.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Happens quite a bit as the different pairs of sisters run into people who think that they're the other pair.
- Party Scattering: The Sheltons and Ratliffes who had spent most of the movie together all walk off with their respective love interests.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Both biologically, and legally. Sadie Shelton is a bullying, self-indulgent Corrupt Corporate Executive while her (legal) sister is a Shrinking Violet and her biological sister a sweet-natured dreamer (albeit still one who longs for the finer things) while Rose Ratliff is stubborn, head-strong and suspicious of city-life.
- Properly Paranoid: Sadie R. thinks she is this because of how everyone she has met in New York seems to know her and her sister.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Chuck thinks that being one of Sadie S.'s legmen is beneath his education
- Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling: The film has this happen to two sets of identical twin girls. One twin from each set is unknowingly replaced with the other, so instead of two sets of twins, there is the same pair of sisters in two different families. One pair is raised in a small town, and the other by a rich family in New York City. The conflict comes when the rich sisters try to destroy the small town whether the other sisters live, causing the pairs to finally meet.
- Right Behind Me: A variant occurs when Rose Shelton's boyfriend Dr. Marshall calls her to apologize about their recent argument and blame it on his dislike of her sister. Rose's sister is the one who picks up the phone and takes this revelation poorly.
- Samus Is a Girl: Graham and Chuck are looking for R. Ratcliffe (Rose) who is foreman of the Hollowmade furniture factory. The R. stands for Rose.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Roone walks out of the most important game of his professional putt-putt career to find Rose R. in New York.
- Shrinking Violet: Rose Shelton is kind but quite timid. Same goes for Dr. Jay. Which is why they don't mesh well.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!:Sadie S.: "Come on Sadie! Who needs these dumb old hayseeds anyway?"Sadie R.: "I do."
- Small Town Boredom: Sadie R. hates Jupiter Hollow for being unexciting.
- Sophisticated as Hell:Rose R.: We appeal to you as business people. We appeal to your basic business instinct.Sadie R.: Yes, to save your own asses!"
- Strange Minds Think Alike: A recurring theme is that the twins have similar tastes and even trains of thought no matter how different their upbringing are.
- Switched at Birth: One each from the Shelton and Ratliff twins.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Sadie S. tries to sell her birthplace.
- We Can Rule Together: How Sadie S. tries to get Sadie R. on her side.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Graham and Chuck are last seen getting dragged out of the ladies room after finding out that the Sheltons have twins.
- Workout Fanservice: Roone does a bunch of push-ups while he's shirtless.
