Any film that has a shot of Moe's Books in Berkeley scores extra points with me.
A recent college graduate (Dustin Hoffman) is given a brand-new red convertible by his affluent parents and a place to hang out at while he figures out what he wants to do with his life. One of the friends of his parents (the gorgeous Anne Bancroft at just 36, lol) seduces him, and despite Hoffman being as awkward as he was in his Rain Man role, the two begin having an affair. Things get complicated when the husband encourages him to date his daughter (Katharine Ross), who's also returning from college.
While the film is entertaining, it was hard to connect with Hoffman's character. I felt for him most early on when his parents were forcing all their friends on him at a party, and you could really feel the generation gap. "I just want to say one word to you, just one word ... plastics," says a friend of his father, trying to talk to him about a prospective future. I wish there had been more of that kind of thing, or that the affair had played out in some more interesting way. As it is, when he's bouncing from mother to daughter, it's hard to really understand the emotion of it, because I didn't sense much of a connection to anyone from him. The mad race to stop a wedding seemed odd for such a film, and cliché besides. Also, as much as I like the Simon and Garfunkel songs that were on the soundtrack (including The Sounds of Silence, an all-time great), they really don't seem to fit the film all that well.
A recent college graduate (Dustin Hoffman) is given a brand-new red convertible by his affluent parents and a place to hang out at while he figures out what he wants to do with his life. One of the friends of his parents (the gorgeous Anne Bancroft at just 36, lol) seduces him, and despite Hoffman being as awkward as he was in his Rain Man role, the two begin having an affair. Things get complicated when the husband encourages him to date his daughter (Katharine Ross), who's also returning from college.
While the film is entertaining, it was hard to connect with Hoffman's character. I felt for him most early on when his parents were forcing all their friends on him at a party, and you could really feel the generation gap. "I just want to say one word to you, just one word ... plastics," says a friend of his father, trying to talk to him about a prospective future. I wish there had been more of that kind of thing, or that the affair had played out in some more interesting way. As it is, when he's bouncing from mother to daughter, it's hard to really understand the emotion of it, because I didn't sense much of a connection to anyone from him. The mad race to stop a wedding seemed odd for such a film, and cliché besides. Also, as much as I like the Simon and Garfunkel songs that were on the soundtrack (including The Sounds of Silence, an all-time great), they really don't seem to fit the film all that well.