Synopsis:
Perhaps the closest that Blake Edwards has come to making a personal film, THAT'S LIFE! stars Jack Lemmon as Harvey Fairchild, an architect confronting his mortality. As the weekend on which...
Perhaps the closest that Blake Edwards has come to making a personal film, THAT'S LIFE! stars Jack Lemmon as Harvey Fairchild, an architect confronting his mortality. As the weekend on which Harvey's family will gather to celebrate his 60th birthday approaches, there is apparently nothing that can erase the angst that is devouring him. Despite his wealth, a happy marriage, and healthy and prosperous children, he's plagued by the idea that his life has been a failure. He believes his work has been compromised by kowtowing to ignorant clients, that his children have little love for him, and, with growing hypochondria, that he's on the verge of death. His long-suffering wife, Gillian (Julie Andrews), tries to coax him out of his depression without telling him that she is being tested for cancer. Refusing to seek therapy, Harvey calls on his former roommate at Notre Dame, now a Catholic priest (Robert Loggia), but finds him enmeshed in his own problems; he also visits a fortune-teller (Felicia Farr) who displays considerably more insight into the architect's plight than did the clergyman. A film financed by Edwards, cowritten with his psychiatrist, and performed by friends and relatives who improvised part of their dialogue, the film's uncertain tone is mitigated by some sharp observations on upper-crust life, a few very funny scenes, and a completely committed performance by Lemmon.
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