| Overall Grade: |
B- |
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| Story: |
C |
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| Acting: |
C |
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| Direction: |
C |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Picnic
by __A_YAHOO_USER__ (movies profile)
Jan 6, 2006
2
of
3 people found this review helpful
This movie was a perpetual family favorite when I was growing up. It's still fun to watch now and then, it's small town nostalgia with a dash of "Peyton Place" sprinkled in.
William Holden is always great but something went a little bit amiss here. He's supposed to be in his early 20's but he looks and acts 45 years old. You can feel the lack of chemistry he had with just about everyone who had a speaking part in this movie, with an even more notable disdain toward leading lady Kim Novak.
I'm too lazy to look up which year "Peyton Place" came out but this semed to be the type of movie that was wildly popular there for a while during 1950's Hollywood. "Picnic" is no exception to exceptional melodrama. ("Who fed this poor girl liquor? She's just a child! Who did this to her??? Who?!? Who?!?" and that fit of hysteria precedes the ripping off of Bill Holden's shirt to unveil his manly torso to the shocked onlookers at the dance
pavillion.)
This is an ok movie until you do delve into the character development, some of the over the top acting (the spinster schoolmarm), and the climatic dance pavillion scene that had about as much catharsis as a sneezing attack. |
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