70/100. This is the 2nd older movie I watched from the recommendations of a work colleague- I told him that I liked The Graduate with the young Dustin Hoffman- so he recommended a bunch of movies.
*** Some Spoilers ***
I found this movie to be very charming, if not a little dated (moreso in the begining of the
movie with the music). I didn't notice that it was dated at all later on in the movie, so that wasn't a massive problem for me overall. George Segal was funny in this- he looked kinda like Aaron Eckhart. Not sure why he was so eager to cheat on his wife though- I guess that's just the way he was. I thought that aspect was a bit weak. There wasn't really anything at home that appeared too terrible to warrant him to get away. I mean they went out to the theater, park with the kids, he seemed to have a nice fulfilling life. (beautiful wife, two kids - although one was overweight with crooked teeth).
Glenda Jackson was great in this. She had a better background for wanting to have a fling- she reminded me of Catherine Zeta Jones in many respects (not as pretty though). Very elegant, pretty (but not hot) and strong. Her see-through teeth threw me for a loop when they did closeups, but I'm just being picky.
It was goofy and funny when they started their fling in Spain and I loved the fight with the hotel guy in between. That scene ended hilariously. And I honestly thought that he was making excuses to his friend on the plane with his hearing and about the car ride situation when they arrived in Spain- he said he gets spasms in his back- funny and unexpected to see he was telling the truth.
Also him not being able to figure out the manual transmission on those cars- everytime he was bouncing down the road I chuckled a bit.
When they finally did fall in love, there was real chemistry and it appeared genuine. You really saw Glenda Jackson looking deflated everytime he had to run when she planned a nice romantic visit- his wife and family were getting in the way. She didn't want to get involved for this very reason, but you can't plan love I suppose. There were some, but not as many laugh out loud scenes when they get back to London, but the change of pace really made that last scene very powerful.
I was surprised to see that this was nominated for best picture- as not too many comedy movies get recognized in today's day- (maybe that's because the comedy movies today rely on sex, cursing and fart jokes to carry them through and the dinosaurs on these voting committees I'm sure do not approve of vulgarity). I do see this as a comedy- it had some heartwarming segments, but ultimately was a comedy done with A Touch of Class (I just had to).
December 16, 2009
