This is a sex comedy for grown ups containing the funniest sex scene I have ever seen about an enjoyable middle aged affair in which everything goes wrong. Yet, the affair serves its emotional purpose both for the two characters concerned – they learn much about themselves and each other - and for the audience – who has a whale of a time.
The humor is slow to build but has a cumulative effect with its often quite barbed insights into the sex war as the fantasy of a sexual affair soon wears off and we begin to see both characters for what they are. George Segal is excellent as the neurotic businessman who cannot keep his hands off other women and feels he has to sweet talk them into bed when they are quite happy to do so without all the blarney. After all, not to do so would hurt his male vanity and pride. Glenda Jackson is a revelation as a tragedienne who can actually do comedy in a sarcastic and wisecracking portrayal of a world weary woman who is very realistic about what men are really like. (She obviously learned a lot from working with Morecambe & Wise!) The two have very good chemistry and neither tries to outshine the other – it is hardly surprising Jackson won an "Oscar" for this.
In the end, the two lovers here quickly become precisely what they are trying to avoid – and instantly and unhappily married couple.
Yet both hunger for the true romance lacking in their lives and think they have found it in each other. Most of the comedy comes from these characters not being in the first flush of youth yet still crying at a showing of the movie Brief Encounter that this movie thematically resembles. There is also some culture clash stuff regarding the differences between the British and the Americans with the usual stereotypes being neatly subverted.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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