As Good As It Gets

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The problem is that the river, dubbed "The Lucinda" after his wife by the central character, Neddy Merrill (Burt Lancaster), is a seriously broken and disrupted waterway that becomes increasingly unnavigable and more treacherous as the story proceeds. At first, Neddy 's relationship with his affluent Fairfield County neighborhood seems cordial enough but then it gradually deteriorates as the viewer observes that Neddy's standing in his community is not at all as it first appears. Even at the film's tragic end, we still aren't quite sure what it was that brought Neddy to financial, emotional, and spiritual ruin. The one positive aspect is that he is still physically as fit as a fiddle, having appeared for ninety minutes in nothing other than a skimpy, speedo-like swimsuit and, at one point, emerging in nothing at all when he visits a couple of nudist friends. If he wasn't going to reveal it all, why bother removing his suit in the first place? I know. It was too much for 1968, but Lancaster probably would have done it if he had the opportunity. Why the heck not at that point in his stunningly successful career? He was already on the top of the Hollywood world and deservedly so.With this viewing, I began thinking, as other reviewers suggest, that Neddy's unique adventure was nothing more than a horrible nightmare about failure itself. The only problem is that he didn't awaken at the end as Amy Irving gratefully did in the horror classic "Carrie". In this case, I am regrettably convinced that Neddy's adventure through the suburban swimming pools of Fairfield County was real and that his increasingly hostile encounters with his neighbors were not only in his imagination. That is what makes the film even more tragic--that Neddy is never freed from the humiliation and horror of his ordeal, as I so much want him to be. Unfortunately, it isn't until the end of the journey when he discovers the unbearable truth at long last."If you make believe hard enough that something is true, it's true for you," he advises the young boy with the empty swimming pool. These words reveal more than any others the disastrous state of denial and the state of mental breakdown that Neddy has reached. The complex and troubling predicament of the central character was very effectively augmented by the musical score of Marvin Hamlisch, his very first film composition. Burt Lancaster was so dedicated to this production that he paid $10,000 out of his own pocket, a sizeable sum in 1966, to finish the film. He considered this to be among the best films of his long, diverse career, and I think that I agree with him.No matter what the causes of Neddy Merrill's downfall actually might have been, he is only a human being, regardless of how flawed, as we all are, and we have nothing but compassion for him.

The Swimmer is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. The story is simple but unusual. A successful executive - Ned Merrill - (in the end we realize that this is not quite so), in a psychological trance, imagine being in a time before the real and decides to "go home", the metaphor that supports the film. His return happens in a planned way, passing by the pools of his friends and acquaintances, forming what he calls "The River Lucinda", in fact his dream of returning to the woman he lost in his uncontrolled life. In this dream he thinks of his two daughters who would be expecting him too. And by the way he traces he finds people who still consider him and people who despise him, the fruit of what he did of his life until then. It is a very strong metaphor and produces a gigantic film. Burt Lancaster, I think, made the best part of his career here. I think this film could only have been performed with him in the lead role. Each one of us is incorporated into the story, living with Ned all his dramas, every moment of his "return home." The sequence in which he fights a race with a horse is the most perfect that is known, is exquisite. And he finds women who were part of his past not well understood, but that gives us the dimension of a superficial life and frivolities. Actress Janice Rule has here, too, one of her biggest moments in the movies. It's beautiful. The unexpected and perfect ending of the film completes this vigorous story of a man who has lost his way in life and can not find himself again. I watched The Swimmer in 1968 when it was released and I've been watching it regularly over the last 50 years. Each time I discover a detail, a situation that I did not perceive well, it is an incredible experience. Great, great, great movie!

Swimming with the sharks of society is a hobby for the former Jim Thorpe, all American, jumping hurdles again and running from estate to estate for a quick lap and chat with the owners. It seems that he knows all of these society people, some seemingly nice, others outwardly hostile, and a few of the women obviously in lust with his tight body. He's sort of an angel to some and a devil to others, and in each of these encounters a little something is learned. Lancaster is in every single scene, surrounded by a cast of very familiar faces who pop in and out quickly yet leave a mark on this journey. The film starts off on a friendly note but things get tense quickly. Some of the wealthy businessmen types try to get him involved in business deals or offer him a job. The women, who range in age from early 20's to late 50's, ogle him. It's apparent that everybody wants a piece of him, whether to possess him or chew him up and spit him out.Among the famous faces are Kim Hunter, Marge Champion, Diana Muldaur, Cornelia Otis Skinner (making accusations towards him that you can only guess what transpired) and Dolph Sweet. He flirts with a young Joan Rivers, playing an insecure woman who basks in his attention and nearly falls under his spell. Guests at a party stand by as the hostess anayalates him. Later Muldaur begs him to leave her alone as her facade of hate crumbles to show the things line where hate ends and love begins. It's a journey for this spirit whom Lancaster plays to realize the impact he's made on everyone of these people, one which has destroyed some of them and one which threatens to destroy him. It's a hard film to understand if you are not in the right frame of mind, and one which could use repeat viewings to pick up things you may have missed, that is if you dare to put yourself through it a second time.

At the beginning of The Swimmer, we see a man climb up a rocky hill, duck beneath the trees, trot across a lawn and dive into a beautiful swimming pool. He does a few laps, is handed a drink and is welcomed by acquaintances from years past. We know nothing about this man, not where he came from nor who he is (other than the fact that he's Burt Lancaster and that he's in amazing shape). Everything seems ideal; the sun and sky, the green grass and trees. It's a perfect day for an 'explorer' to create a day-long adventure from this pool back to his own home across the county. Ned's journey is not as grand as Candide or Huck Finn or Gulliver. No, his is a simple plan - he will swim from pool to pool across the valley until he's back home, where his wife is waiting and his girls are playing tennis. It seems like the ambition of a simple-minded dreamer, yet by the end of the first Act, the viewer knows that something is wrong. We learn about Ned's life at every stop in his journey. The clues come as quickly as a muttered word and leave as fast as a furrowed brow. Ned makes a lot of promises he won't keep and struggles to keep his facts straight from one pool to the next. His memories are blurry and the path soon forces cracks in the armor of the make-believe world he seems to live within. The Swimmer reminded me of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? yet doesn't tie together the pieces as neatly as did that Mike Nichols' masterpiece. The Swimmer, in fact, answers almost no questions by the time it has concluded, yet inspires the viewer to wonder what was actually real in the preceding 95 minutes. Lancaster, whom I loved in Elmer Gantry, was never better than in this film. He is in every scene of the picture and carries it well. Don't be fooled by the two-minute trailer that looks like something Austin Powers would have found groovy back in 1968. This is a serious film and a thoroughly engaging one; the type that no studio would touch in 2015. Although if they did, I'd pay to see Robert Downey, Jr. reprise this character. Definitely worth a look!