Husband definition, a married man, especially when considered in relation to his partner in marriage. Husbands Movie Review & Film Summary (1. John Cassavetes' . It shows an important director not merely failing, but not even understanding why. It has good intentions, I suppose, but it is an artistic disaster and only fitfully interesting on less ambitious levels. Advertisement. Still, it comes to us with incredibly good New York notices, a specimen of what Pauline Kael calls media- hype. Every season there are one or two films that are decreed as great by the New York critical establishment, against all common sense. The best critics, like Kael, weren't won over by . Life had Cassavetes on its cover, and seldom has Time given a better review to a worse movie. Cassavetes once again uses what I guess you'd call pseudo- cin. That isn't dishonest - - a director has a right to do anything he can to make his film work - - but it doesn't grow organically out of the material. Nothing in this film, in fact, seems organic to it; the idea, the style, the narrative, the acting, all seem laid on to a reluctant film. Three friends (Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk) mourn the death by coronary of a fourth. Mourning leads naturally into drinking, and after an extended binge (including the singing of maudlin songs, the expression of undying friendship, copious beer drinking and even more copious vomiting) the friends find themselves flying to London. They pick up three complaisant girls (rather easily, it seemed to me), and in wine, gambling and lovemaking they seek truth. Fair enough. Here we have three characters on the edge of middle age, and the fact of their friend's death is the shadow of their own. Considering the talent involved in the making of . There are a lot of problems. One is with the script. A really excellent script should always seem improvised, of course, to the degree that the actors seem to be saying real things and not reciting dialogue. This in situations where the words should flow naturally (is a drunk ever at a loss for words?). There are lines like: ? I'll tell you what you are .. I wish I could think of what you are. Nor do I believe that Gazzara, Falk and Cassavetes (fine actors all) could have acted these scenes so awkwardly if they were working from scripts; what we see are not performances, but the human beings themselves, photographed while trying not very successfully to improvise. There are other things wrong with . There are some good scenes, even so. And some good ones that become unbearable because they run on so long. And there is always the presence of Cassavetes, who, whatever else his sins, doesn't protect himself from the consequences of his inspirations.
The Husband's Secret . Finally available in paperback—the #1 New York Times bestseller from the author of Big Little Lies and What Alice Forgot. Husbands: the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed sitcom from Brad Bell and Jane Espenson. Watch New Episodes on CW Seed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |