The Worst Film Ever

hyped garbage

best movie i've ever seen.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This is a delightful movie about love, but without being corny. A man falls in love with a whore. Who knows why? It just happens and the next thing he knows he's in it way over his head and he can't get out and does not want to because he is in love. The problem is: she can't handle it because her life is a disaster and she can give just so much; remember: she's a whore who's been with lots of men and she has a life style which this man is forcing her to re-evaluate, and that can be scary. When they first meet, she's working in a bar and she's happy. She becomes miserable after he injects himself into her life, which he can't help because he is in love and he believes he's helping. On top of that, she has a bi-racial son who is practically a street urchin and is pregnant with another man's child, yet the man stays. His selflessness is admirable but when examined objectively, such as by his commanding officer (the man is in the Navy) it becomes apparent that his actions do not seem prudent. He even wants to leave the Navy, which is his life, and marry her. This movie shows to what lengths some people will go to escape loneliness. In the case of the Navy man, he's willing to marry a hard care whore; for the whore she'll settle for the next trick without any questions asked. That she runs away is not surprising. After all, how can a whore be a player if she's married? Marcia Mason gives one of the great performances as the whore. She is emotionally hard and vulnerable at the same time without coming off as contrived. James Caan is excellent as the Navy man who comes into the whore's life. This movie is excellent.

The film's title refers to a real-life temporary "pass" or "leave" issued to navy personnel. In this fictional story, John Baggs, Jr. (James Caan) is one such sailor, stuck in Seattle on leave, a man who doesn't know what to do with his time, or his life. He ends up at a beer joint where he meets Maggie (Marsha Mason), a part-time hooker and pool hustler. "Cinderella Liberty" is the story about how these two lonely people meet, and their on-again, off-again romantic relationship.Baggs is a low-key sort of fellow. But he doesn't take any guff from anyone. Maggie is on welfare. She lives with her eleven-year old son, Doug, in a dingy apartment in a dingy tenement building. Baggs tries to help the kid, but Doug has lots of emotional baggage, as does his mother.The main characters are somewhat tragic. Baggs is certainly no war hero. Indeed, he's rather ordinary, but very caring. Yet, despite his best efforts to unite the three of them into a family, things don't always work out. But the film has a surprise ending that helps offset earlier distressing plot points.Mostly downbeat and depressing, "Cinderella Liberty" is very 1970ish. Cinematography conveys an evocative mood, dark and dreary, and some of the images have a reddish tint. Post Viet Nam, the military is portrayed as somewhat bumbling. There's an obvious absence of military bravado and swagger, which engenders the story with a sense of realism.Casting and acting are fine. The chemistry between Caan and Mason seems genuine. The film was shot entirely on-location in Seattle. No film studios were used.This is a story of dashed hopes, of opportunities lost. Although not for everyone, mostly because of the very slow plot pace, "Cinderella Liberty" is a realistic, character driven story, the kind that's rarely made by contemporary Hollywood.

Depressing film dealing with the subject of human losers. We have Johnny (James Caan) as a sailor who is left behind due to a medical condition and in the process his records are lost placing him in navy limbo. He encounters a tramp, convincingly played by Marsha Mason. Mason reminds me of Susan Hayward in looks and that she often played troubled women. In this picture, it's no different. In another Oscar nominated losing performance, she plays a woman who has been knocked around a lot. In a way, the part was a forerunner for "The Goodbye Girl," a far better picture and performance by her.She has a black child who is street wise and sensitive at the same time. The film depicts the relationship between Mason and Caan. Mason is not an Anna Magnani of "The Rose Tattoo" memory though she tries to be a loving companion one moment only to descend into hysterics at another time.Their one opportunity to find happiness leads to sadness when she gives birth to a child only to lose it a week later. John, desperately trying to show kindness and responsibility is also devastated.Though Mason abandons both Caan and the black child at the end, the film ends when Johnny is able to change places with Eli Wallach, who portrays a naval person who was thrown out of the navy. With the change in identity, John and the boy can pursue Mason to New Orleans where she has gone.The fairy tale of "Cinderella" ended happily. This non-fairy tale ends with some encouragement but we realize the plight of those down on their luck in this society.

You can't necessarily tell by the cinematography, but this fantastic movie is the best film ever shot in Seattle - the pre-Microsoft, real Seattle. The acting is understated to the point where the camera and the actors almost playing a game of who holds the shot the longest. It is not a story about losers at all - that is Sleepless in Seattle - Cinderella Liberty is a beautiful love story in the real world. Cinderella Liberty is a story about the possibilities that can exist between humans in even the most low-life of worlds. I love it because it is the Seattle I knew and offers its characters many of the choices I had offered to me at a certain point in my own life. And that's what heart-gripping cinema is all about, to me.