I miss this kind of movie with its straightforward, basically brutal, look at the realities of aging and missed opportunities to connect between family members. It is not flashy, nor exciting, but it is compelling and will evoke emotion like a poem does.
shareOMG...hubby & I just got home & put on my go-to channel...TCM. Just caught the last few minutes of the film...WOW. I'll have to go back & watch from the beginning. I absolutely hate to come into a film that far in & fully intended to change the channel but couldn't. We both sat there intently & couldn't bring ourselves to turn it off. THAT'S a great film. <Sigh>
One month from today we'll be on the Disney Magic TCM Cruise...cannot wait!!!!
Maybe too straightforward. At times it did feel stagey.
Its that man again!!
I was surprise to read this was originally written as a screenplay, though produced on stage before it was filmed. The cheese-y, swelling musical score did not help the film version -- it imparted a "movie of the week" feel -- the worst of the 1970s! The performances are excellent, though.
shareThe ending certainly felt authentic and true. Generally though "honesty" isn't really much of a praise and the whole thing reminded more of a somewhat clumsily written novella than a poem - the film is talky to boot and the way characters keep bluntly and literal mindedly speaking of how they feel, and psychoanalyzing each other, gets pretty grating (no wonder then that Melvyn Douglas emerges as the sole truly compelling character for he is the only one who seeks to hide his feelings rather than reveal them); just because a film is serious, and about serious things, don't automatically make it a success. And it doesn't help that the direction is pedestrian, with some intrusive, self consciously "arty" flourishes such as the overbaked use of flashbacks and choppy montage which come off as rather misjudged attempts to emulate the French New Wave techniques. They could have also done well to avoid over-accentuating the drama with some overly obvious soundtrack choices. Ultimately, it's mostly the excellent acting by Douglas and, to a lesser degree, Hackman that make sure the movie isn't a total loss (and, despite the largely disagreeable presentation, the writer clearly understands a thing or two about the kinds of relationships he depicts).
"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan