| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
B |
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| Acting: |
A- |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
B |
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The Sensitive Seventies
by BartG (movies profile)
Nov 13, 2008
Jill Clayburgh is outstanding as the the title character, who actually is married to businessman Michael Murphy, but when she finds out he is having an affair with a shopgirl, terminates the marriage.
The story centers on her plight out on her own, in "the wilds" of a modern Manhattan, and the various supportive friends who advise and console her, and the men that inevitably fall her way. Also, there's the wiser than her age teenage daughter (Lisa Lucas hitting all the right notes, but who virtually disappeared after this film) to deal with on the break up.
Writer/Director Paul Mazursky ("Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice", "Blume in Love" etc), balances all of the elements in a mature, realistic, yet entertaining fashion. This is a particular world (the upper east side of New York), at a time when women were really starting to asert their independence, yet still, wanting to retain their womanly virtues. Thirty years later not much has changed!
Beyond the Oscar nominated Clayburgh the supporting players are all fine, espcially Cliff Gorman as Charlie, a superficial lothario, and Alan Bates as Saul, an artist who appears simultaneously sensitive, yet chauvinistic.
The movie never plays it safe, and keeps you involved for the whole ride. In fact, while viewing it again, it seems a whole lot more real than what Hollywood purports to be adult themed fare today. Or maybe it's just me waxing nostalgic! |
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