The last - well, he's still alive, let's say latest - screenplay from Frederic Raphael, who wrote the novel in 1998, thus before his daughter, artist Sarah Raphael, tragically died in 2001. ( I was wondering if he was partly writing about his and his wife's own grief, but it turns out that was a ghastly episode of life imitating art.)
Married Richard Dreyfuss and Judy Davis drive across America to deliver his Thunderbird to their son David Julian Hirsh as a wedding present. Three things become clear: 1. They're not getting on too well and she is threatening divorce and sale of their home. 2. They have both had affairs. 3. One of their children has died.
They drop in on various friends and family on their journey. What's quite funny is that the entire film was shot in and around Toronto.
They encounter an angry wannabe teenage actor Owen Roth (who reminded me of one of our own relatives), and a college professor from the past, Maximilian Schell, whose former wife is still living in the same house but they don't see each other - like, weird, man.
Then a former comedy partner of Dreyfuss, played by the director. And their daughter, who's pregnant and now with a huge basketball player (Selma Blair and John Salley). Davis's ex lover, Fred Ward, who's absolutely horrible to her, and a producer who has ripped off Dreyfuss, Saul Rubinek, leading to the film's best gag.
What can I say? From the writer of Two For the Road, it's obviously really good on relationships. Most enjoyable.
There's a moment where a couple coming to view the house are discovered in bed by Dreyfuss! How can people do such things, I said, then remembering a close family member had done something similar when viewing a boat... Meaning? You don't have to look far to see all sorts of strange and outrageous and naughty human behaviour in or close to your own life.
A TV movie, photographed by Jean Lépine, edited by Richard Halsey (Rocky, American Gigolo, Joe Versus the Volcano, and three Mazursky films: Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Moscow on the Hudson, Next Stop, Greenwich Village).
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