On Golden Pond (1981)
A reasonably well written if somewhat obvious play, some decent decisions about editing and filming if nothing special, and two utterly perfect, touching, inspired performances. Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, both late in their careers, are unbelievably perfect as an old couple all too familiar with each other and still beautifully in love. They are funny, tender, delicate, sassy, and idiosyncratic to a tee. Great great stuff.
When daughter Jane (Fonda) arrives, playing their daughter, with her faux-husband (Dabney Coleman), the plot gets complicated in clumsy ways, predictable ones, with a step son to mix it up. The middle third of the film is therefore almost dispensable, except to see what happens, but it's straight ahead drama without nuance. There is that pretty but somewhat annoying music David Grusin was used for so often in these years, and there is the routine construction and editing throughout. Director Mark Rydell is understandably little known (he did other routine stuff for movies and television, but nothing with these credentials again).
But hang in there. By the end, we have out two stars again, and boy, you know them from years of movies, you feel like you know them now. They have different names, but there they are, Henry and Kate, and it made my cry shamelessly. As a movie lover, I guess, but also as someone who loves sincere drama well done.
So how to judge this as a movie? I almost say don't. Judge it as a vehicle for seeing these two truly legendary and remarkable people, actors and humans both, almost as themselves, pouring it on and letting it all out. It's no surprise they BOTH won best acting Oscars, and the writer won a third Oscar for the movie.
A reasonably well written if somewhat obvious play, some decent decisions about editing and filming if nothing special, and two utterly perfect, touching, inspired performances. Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, both late in their careers, are unbelievably perfect as an old couple all too familiar with each other and still beautifully in love. They are funny, tender, delicate, sassy, and idiosyncratic to a tee. Great great stuff.
When daughter Jane (Fonda) arrives, playing their daughter, with her faux-husband (Dabney Coleman), the plot gets complicated in clumsy ways, predictable ones, with a step son to mix it up. The middle third of the film is therefore almost dispensable, except to see what happens, but it's straight ahead drama without nuance. There is that pretty but somewhat annoying music David Grusin was used for so often in these years, and there is the routine construction and editing throughout. Director Mark Rydell is understandably little known (he did other routine stuff for movies and television, but nothing with these credentials again).
But hang in there. By the end, we have out two stars again, and boy, you know them from years of movies, you feel like you know them now. They have different names, but there they are, Henry and Kate, and it made my cry shamelessly. As a movie lover, I guess, but also as someone who loves sincere drama well done.
So how to judge this as a movie? I almost say don't. Judge it as a vehicle for seeing these two truly legendary and remarkable people, actors and humans both, almost as themselves, pouring it on and letting it all out. It's no surprise they BOTH won best acting Oscars, and the writer won a third Oscar for the movie.