Since I first saw this in 1970, it has been one of my favorite movies. The fine script by Joseph Bologna and Renée Taylor reminds me more than a little of the work of Preston Sturges: crisp, witty, clear-eyed, and very much to the point. The film offers an intelligent and critical, yet affectionate, image of US marriage during a period of rapidly changing mores, when the recent invention of the pill had made sex, both casual and committed, less daunting to middle class Americans than it used to be.
The film looks at three marriages and one relationship that would have been regarded as improper (at that time, at least) but that is about to be sanctified by marriage. Particularly good are the exchanges between Beatrice Arthur, who is quite wonderful in her role as an Italian Catholic mother, and her husband Richard Castellano, and their older son, who informs his distressed parents that he and his wife (played by Diane Keaton in her screen debut) want a divorce just as his younger brother, played by Michael Brandon, is about to marry an Irish Catholic girl, played by Bonnie Bedelia, fresh from her role in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They." Their assurances to their older son that happiness should not be expected from marriage, and that "too much happiness will only make you miserable," are delivered in a thoroughly believable way.
A determination to stick with what you're stuck with, reinforced by a generous dose of hypocrisy, seems especially to the older generation to be essential. Will Brandon and Bedelia find a different way of doing things? The writers and director do not commit themselves; viewers will form their own conclusions.
In addition to those mentioned, Gig Young, Cloris Leachman, Anne Jackson, Joseph Hindy, Bob Dishy, and Marian Hailey all perform very ably. This is an excellent film that has never received the credit it deserves.
The film looks at three marriages and one relationship that would have been regarded as improper (at that time, at least) but that is about to be sanctified by marriage. Particularly good are the exchanges between Beatrice Arthur, who is quite wonderful in her role as an Italian Catholic mother, and her husband Richard Castellano, and their older son, who informs his distressed parents that he and his wife (played by Diane Keaton in her screen debut) want a divorce just as his younger brother, played by Michael Brandon, is about to marry an Irish Catholic girl, played by Bonnie Bedelia, fresh from her role in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They." Their assurances to their older son that happiness should not be expected from marriage, and that "too much happiness will only make you miserable," are delivered in a thoroughly believable way.
A determination to stick with what you're stuck with, reinforced by a generous dose of hypocrisy, seems especially to the older generation to be essential. Will Brandon and Bedelia find a different way of doing things? The writers and director do not commit themselves; viewers will form their own conclusions.
In addition to those mentioned, Gig Young, Cloris Leachman, Anne Jackson, Joseph Hindy, Bob Dishy, and Marian Hailey all perform very ably. This is an excellent film that has never received the credit it deserves.