Following his breakthrough role in BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE, Elliott Gould appeared in a flood of movies (four in 1970 alone). There were some masterpieces like MASH, THE LONG GOODBYE and later THE SILENT PARTNER as well as dismal flops like MATILDA and THE DEVIL AND MAX DEVLIN. MOVE falls somewhere in between. It's certainly not a great movie, but it has enough worthwhile things to offer to make it an entertaining expose of urban angst. Gould is a writer (apparently of soft-core porn) and dog walker trying to move from one apartment to another in a very uncooperative NYC. His flights of paranoid fancy, often tinged with black-humored surrealism, lead him to drift from his loving wife (the great Paula Prentiss) and get involved with a ditsy model (Geneviève Waïte). MOVE is a funny and often cringe-inducing experience as Gould gets himself into various uncomfortable fixes, often resulting in him stripping his clothes off. There's terrific chemistry between Gould & Prentiss and the direction by Stuart Rosenberg (as director of the likes of MURDER INC. and COOL HAND Luke, he was NOT known for a light touch) is fine. Waïte comes close to stealing the film as the elfin Brit who gives Gould a real going-over.
Review of Move
