Movie #1223 "Mr. & Mrs. Bridge" could be considered like watching paint dry to some people --- it's that S-L-O-W......Merchant and Ivory talkie film that didn't do well at the box-office, but that's because the film is not action-packed at all. It is character driven and boy are these two characters quirky....they are based on book characters, but ones I knew nothing about because I hadn't read the books. According to IMDB website, people who have read the book think Woodward plays it too flighty --- I , not knowing the book's character, thought that Ms. Woodward's characterization was spot on---she has very little room in her life to be herself --- to be free to do what she wants --- she , being the matriarch in the house, lives for everyone else, and she is hurt a lot along the way when her hubby and kids can't give as much love or sacrifice back to her. Paul Newman plays a very stoic, sexually repressed character, and he does it well. I think this character (and not the one we all love in the film Cool Hand Luke) is closer to the real Paul Newman, and it was fun watching him play this character so repressed. The odd things he says kept the movie going for me. His one daughter is played by the great Kyra Sedgwick, and she is so terrifically real in this film. So is Blythe Danner, the woman friend of Woodward's that doesn't want to do what her hubby wants her to do, so she is searching for freedom also. I found the film very good, but a bit confusing at times where it was going --- it seemed to lack focus --- it just moved from one scene to the next and didn't seem to have transitions....the scenes finished abruptly and were left there to thud! The ending is the best place to see that thud in action --- not a very good ending at all to me. But that's what happens in an indie film --- it takes chances and sometimes doesn't succeed with every viewer. But this wasn't supposed to be an indie so it and several scenes were quite unexpected and seemed out of place. However, the history background was terrific, and how these rich people act in upstate New York in the 1930's was quite enlightening and made the film worthwhile to watch. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. If you are a fan of Newman and Woodward, you would find a lot to like here, I think. But it isn't must see at all!
MR & MRS. BRIDGE 1990 PG-13 3.5 stars out of 5 from me.
The American upper middle class is the target of this masterful Merchant-Ivory film based on a pair of novels by Evan S. Connell starring real-life husband and wife Paul Newman and Oscar nominee Joanne Woodward as the eponymous couple. Newman plays the patriarch of a well-to-do family whose members are struggling to define themselves under his austere command and the changing mores of the 1930s and '40s.
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