Too much of everything

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

A Disappointing Continuation

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Jackie Gleason and Tom Hanks: two very gifted actors in a movie that runs all over the road. "Nothing in Common" opens up with Hanks at maximum likability, his successful ad executive riding in on cocky youthful charm. His relationship with his coworkers is the stuff of dreams (or fiction), and he makes the job look fun. Which gives no indication as to just how no-nonsense this story will get. He's playing an only child who has to deal with his parents' sudden separation and father's failing health. In short, he brings his dramatic A-game (especially notable for being so early in his serious actor career). Gleason, for his part, is playing a character that's not all that easy to stomach (sometimes even hateful), but it's one hell of a performance. This movie is all about their struggling relationship, and both men make it work. It's the tone that's inconsistent; sometimes light, sometimes serious, with an ending that feels sugarcoated. The comedy feels at odds with the darker material.

I finally got around to watching this movie on Netflix last night and was pleasantly surprised. I am a Tom Hanks fan and usually love all of his works but of course he's had a few that wasn't what I'd call spectacular acting or anything.But I watched Nothing in Common last night and really loved it. I wouldn't say it was his best, nor would it be one of my favorite movies, but I'd certainly watch it again. I thought every one did a great job and the characters were done very well. The storyline was great, it's such a common theme in today's world. I know many couples who got divorced in their 50's and 60's after many years of marriage and it does take a toll on the whole family. "Kids" who are now in their 30's often take for granted their parents are still together and don't even pay attention to the fact that things could not be going so smoothly. Anyways, it's a modern day theme still today and I thought the emotions shown in this movie were spot on.The only complaint I have was the cheesy '80's music that would start playing during a pivotal moment and I felt it sort of "ruined" it but I was able to get past that and realize what a fantastic movie this was. Definitely an important moment in Tom Hank's career that, I think, is often by passed.

Sometimes it takes a great shock to remind us what our priorities should be. We may take offense at the suggestion that our ambitions, our lusts, and our greed are more important to us than the health and safety and happiness of our loved ones, but how often do we find ourselves acting as though they are? Sometimes the shock occurs in time for us to rearrange our priorities. Sometimes it comes too late, and we can only regret our foolishness.Garry Marshall's Nothing in Common concerns just such a shock. After 34 years of marriage, Lorraine Basner (Eva Marie Saint) leaves her husband Max (Jackie Gleason) because she can no longer tolerate his oppressive silence. Over the course of three decades he has treated her at best as a roommate, at worst as a handservant. Their marriage is barren, devoid of affection and intimacy. Aside from their son David, they have nothing in common anymore.Max is devastated by his wife's departure, and too proud to admit it. He would like nothing better than for her to return, but he is unwilling -- perhaps unable -- to protest his love. The shock has come too late for Max and Lorraine, and the blame belongs to both of them. Max has indeed treated his wife shamefully, but she in turn has put up with it. Thirty-four years is a long time to wait before lodging a serious complaint.The shock has come just in time for David Basner (Tom Hanks), the clever young adman always ready with a line -- for a client, for a girl. He lives a life of constant change, moving blithely from one presentation or seduction to the next, putting together a reel of 60-second commercials and 90-minute relationships as he goes. In his preoccupation with the surfeit of choices in his smorgasbord life, he has denied himself the opportunity to get to know his parents as people and deprived them of the one thing they still have in common, their son. The shock of their separation reminds him that he is neglecting his responsibility to his parents; the discovery that his father will require life-threatening surgery gives added urgency to his renewed interest in their lives.The shock also gives him pause to reflect on the shape of his own life, to recognize that he has nothing in common with the sleeping partners he picks out like actresses at a cattle call and that the childhood sweetheart with whom he can identify may not be available forever.Nothing in Common is an adult movie in the true sense of the term. It offers a mature treatment of a subject of extreme importance to adults in a country racked by divorce. It does not resort to nudity, coarse language, or superficial sociological dialogue. It presents the breakup of a marriage as an unmitigated tragedy, not as a grand opportunity for the exploration of narcissism (as is the case with such shallow contemporary films as An Unmarried Woman). It resolutely rejects the irresponsible and amoral lifestyle celebrated in so much of modern culture, and it encourages us to do likewise, by giving us an honest picture of it. Nothing in Common is an adult movie with a PG rating, a fine cast of characters, a skillful director, and an important story to tell.

I happened to catch this movie while I was in college in 1991. At the time though, I only saw the ending, but it really piqued my interest b/c the last scene where Tom Hanks is pushing a wheel-chair-bound Jackie Gleason down a hospital corridor through a windowed overpass was actually filmed where I was born -- Northwestern Memorial Passavant Hospital in Chicago. Years later, I was finally able to view "Nothing in Common" in its entirety on video, and while I liked some parts of it -- mostly b/c of its numerous Chicago location shots -- I thought the film's production value was a little bit low for a Hollywood film as it was produced and directed in such a way as to be reminiscent of network television soap operas and made-for-TV movies. The overlaid 80's soundtrack, for example, gave this movie a sappy feel and exuded tres gauche maudlin schamltziness, IMO. Nevertheless, Tom Hanks was great, as usual, in his reprisal of the sympathetic 'everyman' role that has now become his trademark, and I believe that this was Jackie Gleason's last performance. Sela Ward, however, is the number one reason to see this film, as she is from beginning to end the unequivocal scene stealer. Not only is Sela Ward hot hot hot, Ward brought a certain amount of authenticity in her portrayal of a big-city advertising executive circa 1980s. This is because long before Ward became a model and began her acting career, Ward, who majored in advertising at Ole' Miss, was a real-life advertising copywriter and exec on Madison Avenue in NYC in the late 70's and early 80's. Regardless, Ward's drop-dead gorgeousness did not detract from her believability as the cutthroat yuppie executive, Cheryl Ann Wayne, by one iota. Great Chicago references though, e.g., Wrigley Field, location shoots in neighborhood pubs, downtown scenes, etc.