That was an excellent one.

A different way of telling a story

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Andras Varda (Tom Berenger) is orphaned in WWII Hungary, where he becomes a kid hustler for the American GIs. As he grows up, he is disillusioned with the fickle girls of his own age. He gets involved with older Maya (Karen Black) who teaches him the ways of love. Then he has a string of lovers taking him to the Velvet Revolution and beyond.For a movie that purports to advocate something profound, this seems to be a very superficial film. There is no depth to Tom Berenger's acting. I think he's not the best actor for the role. He looks like a jock trying to get laid. I think a geekier actor could bring more intelligence to the character. It would bring life to the interior monologue. And the pacing is terribly slow. Tom Berenger has the energy of a blank sheet of paper. I think he has the ability to project anger or power but he isn't allowed to in this movie. It's not his type of movie. It's not horrible but it is boring. It's probably more notable for some soft core pretensions.

This film though artsy ,was , well, you guessed it redundant. Growing up as a middle man for a brothel and being introduced to sex from a countess at the ripe old age of 11 or so, Andres becomes a stud, not gigolo , for sex starved housewives, between 30 and 40 or so. Taking place in Hungary during mid century, this film even seemed that much more far fetched. Andres , not having luck with teens his own age , ventures for older women. Going through women like the rest of the male population goes through underwear, this film did not have much of a point. Surely women can not be as pathetic as they were in this film? The cheesy lines were as ridiculous as the revolving door of a plot, that just kept going around and around. In the one scene, where a stupid line did not work, conveniently there was an attractive older lady, dining alone,ahemmmm, at another table that somehow saved the day for Andres. Too contrived, too predictable and well too soft porn. From a male perspective, lots of lovely visuals, but not much else going. Basically the open ending , just presumed more of the same, with nothing settled with Andres as far as his conscience or simply just becoming a mature adult. Another film, unlikable characters and a garbage pail.

Like someone else on this page has already said, this movie should not be approached as a serious period piece, but as a soft-core porn flick. The vapid characters have been stripped of all human dimensions except their sex drive. You kind of wonder when exactly Tom Berenger's character found the time to become a philosophy professor, since we almost always see him in a horizontal position, if you know what I mean. But nobody can deny that the film does have some genuinely erotic moments (Susan Strasberg steals the show in that department, as the always "hungry for more" Bobbie). (**)

"In Praise of Older Women" is relatively true to the excellent psychological/philosophical novel it is based on. However, the problem is that all its intellectual elements (such as its theories about the reasoning behind promiscuity) are removed in the adaptation. The result is a soft porn movie which is unintentionally hilarious due to awkwardness and bad acting. Andras, the skirt-chasing protagonist, is presented as a dip who throws a temper tantrum when one of his lovers leaves him and delivers lines like "Give us the grand tour, pops." or "This exquisite antique ashtray could be yours if you promise to become my lover." as awkwardly as if he actually knew how lame he sounded (which Tom Berenger, who played him, probably did). A bad acting award should also go to the girl who played Andras´s first teenage girlfriend. She delivers her lines as if the characters she talked to were puppies or newborn babies but then, as my friend pointed out, she actually does act like a stupid flirty girl in her early teens who does not know what she wants in a boyfriend. The actresses who play Andras´s more adult girlfriends admittedly do a better job but still, they mostly play along with the soft porn cliche of upper class semi-intellectuals who treat sex as if it was art collecting or jogging. What do they see in a dork like Andras at their age anyway ? Also, what´s the deal with some of the Hungarian characters having Hungarian accents and the other Magyars having AMERICAN accents ? Nevertheless, I must reemphasize that this movie is fun. It made me laugh more than most typical "comedies" and some of the dramatic scenes, such as the one where Andras must flee Hungary , actually do work dramatically. The sex scenes, while pretty mild by today´s standards, look relatively realistic. The insights into Hungarian culture are interesting too. Nevertheless, trash is trash and I love it !