I found the scenes with Patricia Barry, the older woman who meets with Al Pacino in the bar, particularly heartbreaking. He tells her, "We'll call you," and she says, "No, you won't." Later she sees him in the bar with Ellen Barkin, and she leaves in tears.
I guess Al couldn't have told her that the point of the meeting was a murder investigation, but it certainly would have helped ease the pain of rejection!
It's unreal that Patricia Barry was 68 in that movie. She looked great. I was thinking maybe 55 tops.
shareIt really is amazing, isn't it? There are various conflicting details on Ms. Barry's true birth year, ranging from 1921 to 1930, so she could have been as young as 59 there. I know IMDb says she was born in 1921, though. Regardless, she looked stunning in "Sea of Love."
shareIndeed.
shareAs others have said, a jumbled scene. If she already felt rejected by Pacino in just talking to him, what's with the dirty glare? Now, if they had agreed on a second meeting and she spotted him on multiple dates in the same night, ok. But it didn't happen that way. Lazy screenwriting, which this film is a victim of at times. All I can guess is that it was a final confirmation of her suspicion that he was starting to look elsewhere.
You'd HAVE to know that the couple who hold up the "two" sign are undercover cops. Why would a random couple do that??
very bad writing, Al saves this movie to be just fair, for me anyway.
shareIf she already felt rejected by Pacino in just talking to him, what's with the dirty glare?Because seeing Pacino meet another woman in the same place (and on the same night) as her made her feel even worse. This should have been obvious. I don't get all the "confusion." I understood the scene just fine and thought it was a very good one. share
For some reason, I always thought it was Barbara Baxley who played this role.
Like many others have said, it's a powerful scene, very well-played. In fact, even if the lady's reaction does indeed seem weird, it's one of the very few scenes of the movie I remember, in addition to the opening sequence and the ones involving Ellen Barkin at her sexiest. I watched it almost 20 years ago.
So if the scene involving the older lady is stuck in my mind almost two decades later, the actress definitely played her brief role to perfection.
The scene was put in there to show the complexities of dating, specifically the classified dating scene. Just like every romantic comedy nowadays has its characters connecting via social networks, Googling each other, etc.
It's also a chance to develop Pacino's character, how sympathetic he seems to feel about the woman, as he was with the father he let get away during the sting operation.
Excellent point about Pacino's character, SnowBoy81! He seemed truly torn and regretful during that scene, but his overriding mission to solve the case won out.
Also a very astute observation about dating conventions in films, which become a real time capsule of the era in which they were released. I remember a film from the early '80s (I wish I could remember which one) that had a line like this: "We just weren't compatible. She was VHS, and I was Beta." Precious!
I felt so bad for her too. You can tell she's done this a lot of times and keeps getting rejected. And seeing her at the bar later, watching, is so sad. She's only in two scenes in this movie, but we all remember her CLEARLY. She did a great job, and I'm glad they kept those scenes in because they could have easily gone on the editing room floor.
Is it okay if I do it for mom and not you? 'Cause I really like mom.
Indeed. It's now been several years since I've seen this, and I remember that scene very vividly. That and John Goodman singing "Sea of Love" very badly.
shareThat scene was sad, but a realistic portrayal of dating. The older lady had class and could have done better than a lying midget like Al Pacino. I don't think the "Older Woman" was given a name. That was how she was listed in the credits.
Patricia Barry was a contract player with Columbia and has appeared in over 130 television series and movies. She is now 93 years old.
Indeed, she could have done much better than Al, and I'd like to think that as the evening went on, she did.
I'm glad to hear that Patricia Barry is still around. Interesting that this was her last film until she appeared in an indie horror movie called "Delusional" last year.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3092878/combined