Undescribable Perfection

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent adaptation.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Fonda is a rich young woman with health problems and a helicopter husband and family. She has these bad lung problems yet the family never tells her to stop her chain-smoking. On her trip to Greece with another couple, she chain-smokes and drinks a lot. ***SPOILER (not that it matters in this film): Is anyone surprised she dies in the end?***Finch is her love interest. He sleepwalks in this role--not his character but the actor. The guy doesn't give crap about this film, and if he doesn't, why should we? Angela Lansbury is the most interesting character in this contrivance and is the only reason for the 1 star. Unfortunately, she bows out of the action too soon, leaving us with nothing to watch.I love me my melodrama, but this isn't the good stuff. Fonda cries about how her mother has convinced her she's "unable to love." That mysterious, elusive condition found only in melodramas could have been put to good thematic use here (as was done also by Fonda in the cheesy-but-fun melodrama The Chapman Report). I guess the subject was too "distasteful" to play up in this "classy" film.If you like seeing Peter Finch do nothing, Jane Fonda smoke, and Angela Lansbury play the ultimate mean girl, this is your film. I'm not watching it again until the MST3K crew reviews it. I wouldn't be surprised if they already have.

No wonder this wasn't even listed in my comprehensive special edition video book covering thousands of movies ~ not even as a dog. Since yesterday, 10/16/06, was Angela Lansbury's 81st birthday they featured her movies on Turner Classics. Evidently Jane Fonda must still have some pull with Ted, because her performance didn't warrant viewing; it made ME uncomfortable watching her. Angela, in a recent interview, mentioned her disappointment with that movie. No surprise! That's 90 minutes I'll never get back. However, I made a lovely cauliflower au gratin and a pumpkin pie while the movie played on our kitchen TV (I kept thinking something would happen or the story would get better; it didn't).

I thought the movie was unique if not wonderful, being only ever so slightly cliché in its ending. I could not, however, tell if the style in which the film was shot was meant to be unusual and fresh or if this achieved addition to the film was simply an accident brought on by clumsiness. As for questions concerning the title, I would recommend the book of Genesis (to be found in the Bible for all of those who don't know) where Adam walked with God in The Cool of the Day. I don't have a Bible handy at the moment so I will not quote you can read this for yourself. Fonda reminds me of a young Katharine Hepburn in this film. She seems unsure of herself, probably because this was one of her first major roles, and like the Great Kate, in her very early films, she uses a higher voice than is generally attributed to her in this early film. It is not until a few years later in each career that we hear those majestic deeper voices that command so much respect from audiences.

I found Jane Fonda's hair rather interesting in this film. It provided a nice distraction from the narrative which plodded along at a rather languid pace. The actors smoked a lot in the film too. I mean in older Hollywood films actors smoked a lot, but they really lit up in this one. In almost every scene Peter Finch was lighting up and puffing away. It's almost like he knew there wasn't much going on dramatically so he might as well smoke a cigarette until the scene was over. I thought for sure Peter Finch was going to die of lung cancer, but then Jane ends up getting really sick, which was okay because that meant the movie was almost over. On the positive side I did enjoy the shots of Greece.