Wednesday 11 May 2022

Starting Over (1979 Alan J Pakula)

Written by James L Brooks (based on a novel by Dan Wakefield). A man whose wife has cheated on him is divorced by her. He meets a nice lady, they romance. The day she moves in to his place, his ex turns up, and he becomes confused. He leaves the new lady to go back to her, but it doesn't turn out. He goes back to the nice lady (who has said she never wants to hear from him again) with a marriage proposal and she says 'yes'. People are nuts, in other words.

We heartily dislike woman A, Candice Bergen, and we quite dislike Man A, Burt Reynolds, because he's a worthless shit. We like woman B, Jill Clayburgh, as well as Man's brother and wife, Charles Durning and Frances Sternhagen, as well as nutty divorce group member Austin Pendleton (Wallace Shawn is another member of the group).

The funniest aspect to all this is that Bergen is a terrible - yet somehow published - singer-writer. The moment when she invites him back to her motel room and sings to him is hilariously bad.

It's very darkly lit by Sven Nykvist, or we just have a very dark print (probably the latter). Marvin Hamlisch's music is not good. Didn't really rate Reynolds' performance.





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