Pretty Good

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

When I was 20 and first read this story I loved it. Then I saw the movie and was charmed by Liv Ullman, Edward Albert, and the rest of the cast. (Binnie Barnes was a Ziegfield Girl! Gene Kelly dances the twist!) Now, over 30 years later, I have watched it more times than I can count.OK, so you know the story from the plot synopsis. Whoever says there is no chemistry between the two leads doesn't have the same nervous system that I have. However, there is one glaring problem: for a 40-year-old woman to be interested in a 22-year-old, he must be a pretty incredible and "mature" guy. But Albert's character consistently descends into childish argument and even name-calling when Ullman disappoints him. ("You don't know what you want." and "You are a silly, helpless woman...") This would be an unbeatable romance if there was more depth to his character and more development of their relationship. It's not chemistry that's missing, it's any evidence of true intimacy. And that is a flaw of the script, not the casting.Still, with a "willing suspension of disbelief", it is a charming romance and a chance to see Liv Ullman be happy.

Where to begin? Pretty much everything about this movie is absolutely dreadful. The plot is a shallow fairy-tale with the most improbable twists and turns, and its central theme - that where true loves reigns, age difference simply does not matter - is just plain silly. By way of proof we have a recent high school graduate fall in love with and marry a 43 year old multi-millionaire from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and 40 year old Liv Ullmann fall in love and marry 22 year old Edward Albert, by coincidence the son of another multi-millionaire. All of that is bad enough, but what really put me off is the way Ullmann - an obviously sensitive and intelligent woman - is shown as being overcome and indeed pushed around by a creepy guy with no personality who grabs at her to "help her undress" and is just generally obnoxious in his self-satisfied smugness. Ullmann looks attractive enough to make her a plausible love object for a 22 year-old, but the other way around? Goodness! Her acting is at least better than that of the rest of the cast, which is really not saying much. To round it all off Gene Kelly gives a hammy performance as Ullmann's ex-husband. So - terrible on every level: plot, acting, message. Zero stars if that option were available.

Thought provoking, eye-brow raising and VERY funny in all the right places! Long before Demi Moore walked out hand-in-hand, in Public, with Ashton Kutcher, this film went "public" with the possibility that a younger man, (who was strong, handsome and had both his own business and LOT of money already in his pocket!), could find an older woman, (who wasn't broken down or bitter about life!), attractive, desirable and worth "fighting for"! The romance between Peter Latham and Ann Stanley, (played with sensitivity and subtle humor by both Edward Albert, Jr., and Liv Ullman respectively), begins one dusky night in Greece and culminates after he accidentally finds her again in New York.Ann had originally gone to Greece for a bit of a "final fling" before she felt "compelled by societal convention" to settle into "matron-hood", (that time in life after having been a Wife and Mother, and now, with her marriage over, and her daughter grown; she was no longer "on the market" as it were for any of the "usual" things that most men supposedly wanted out of a woman... So, she'd just "concentrate" on running her own Interior Design business and "forget" about "Love" ever coming into her life again...) However, Peter's feelings were a bit bruised when he woke up the next morning after their romantic tryst, alone and went looking for Ann, thinking that he and she had just begun a wonderful relationship.Realizing that he'd been (essentially), sexually "used" by Ann, he chalked the night up to a "wonderful fling" that he'd just have to "get over".The real mayhem begins (again!), when Ann's daughter comes home one evening and announces that she's got a date with a friend of a friend.... And, yes... The man who shows up to go on the blind date with Ann's daughter is the man that Mom already got to "know"! Peter! Subtext and double entendres play out in a scene that is both hilarious, squirm-worthy and exciting all at the same time when Peter wants to know why Ann behaved "so cowardly" in regards to the way she left him in Greece.Peter wants to know why Ann would be so Puritanically inclined now that she's back in the "real world", and sets out to win her love all over again!Liv Ullman, (formerly directed by the legendary Ingmar Bergman!), is a most unlikely "cougar", and Edward Albert, Jr. a most decidedly un-cub-like "cub" in this priceless gem of a film.Everyone is of legal age, which only begs the question, "Was society ever so truly closed-minded?" The answer, sadly is, they still are! The only real problem with the film, here, is that it's NOT readily available anywhere!

As a 40-ish divorcée courting a 22-year-old man, Liv Ullmann (beautiful Norwegian actress in only her second American film) looks like a deer caught in the headlights. She's much too shaky and insecure to warm up to, and her scenes with Edward Albert have no romantic lift (this isn't all Liv's fault, Albert pushes his moments with her in a creepy way, coming off like an overripe gigolo). The good supporting cast includes Binnie Barnes and Deborah Raffin; Gene Kelly is lively playing Liv's ex-husband, although he is forced to go-go dance (such were the times). A wan, somewhat exhausted piece of fluff from the play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy. *1/2 from ****