This movie has a lot going for it. The acting is the best part: the three main characters - perhaps I should say the two main characters, the roles played by William Hurt and Kathleen Turner - are very three-dimensional. Those actors given their characters many dimensions, and it makes them interesting and sometimes surprising. Gena Davis also does a fine job with her role, but her character does tend to be a caricature at times.
That is the problems with most of the rest of the characters: they are written as two-dimensional, and they too often come off as oddball caricatures. I'm sure those actors could have done better with a better script concerning them, but they didn't have the chance.
Some of the moments are really remarkable, especially the scenes between Turner and Hurt. And then, some of the scenes are just wrong. The worst, for me, was the last 60 seconds of the movie, where Hurt's character meets Davis' character and the music swells: it screams "make the women in the audience happy" and seems like it was pasted on.
Equally problematic is what leads to that: the second-last scene, between Turner and Hurt, where Hurt finally explains what he sees in Davis' character. It's very interesting and intelligent dialogue - her quirky character has allowed him to try to be someone different, to get out of his old, boring rut - but the movie never really showed us that. That, for me, was a real problem.
A lot of this movie is very well done, and I recommend it. But a fair amount of it is facile caricature, and that may boor some viewers.
That is the problems with most of the rest of the characters: they are written as two-dimensional, and they too often come off as oddball caricatures. I'm sure those actors could have done better with a better script concerning them, but they didn't have the chance.
Some of the moments are really remarkable, especially the scenes between Turner and Hurt. And then, some of the scenes are just wrong. The worst, for me, was the last 60 seconds of the movie, where Hurt's character meets Davis' character and the music swells: it screams "make the women in the audience happy" and seems like it was pasted on.
Equally problematic is what leads to that: the second-last scene, between Turner and Hurt, where Hurt finally explains what he sees in Davis' character. It's very interesting and intelligent dialogue - her quirky character has allowed him to try to be someone different, to get out of his old, boring rut - but the movie never really showed us that. That, for me, was a real problem.
A lot of this movie is very well done, and I recommend it. But a fair amount of it is facile caricature, and that may boor some viewers.