BBB.5
(out of 5)
A rainy night at a California inn brings together a married accountant (Alan Alda) and a happy housewife (Ellen Burstyn), who spend a wonderful evening together that ends up in bed. The next morning he hashes out his Red Scare-era guilt over what they did while she feels no remorse whatsoever; her ease rubs off and pretty soon they’ve decided to meet at the same time and place every year. While never getting in the way of their own satisfying marriages, Alda and Burstyn find an intimacy burgeoning between them that is a relief from their everyday lives. Various dates over the decades are viewed as we watch America change through these two people who experience every political angle, every personal triumph and tragedy that the last half of the twentieth century has had to offer: his son goes to Vietnam, she becomes a hippie, he becomes a neo-conservative, she becomes a career woman, etc. Years later Forrest Gump would attempt to do the same thing on a bigger scale, but without the poignancy of this film. It doesn’t always work perfectly, a lot of its setups are too obviously allegorical and would have been easier to swallow on stage, but the performances by the two leads are too good to keep it from being ineffective.
Universal Pictures, The Mirisch Corporation
USA, 1978
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Screenplay by Bernard Slade, based on his play
Cinematography by Robert Surtees
Produced by Morton Gottlieb, Walter Mirisch
Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Production Design by Henry Bumstead
Costume Design by Theadora Van Runkle
Film Editing by Sheldon Kahn
Cast Tags: Alan Alda, Bernie Kuby, Cosmo Sardo, David Northcutt, Ellen Burstyn, Ivan Bonar, William Cantrell
Academy Award Nominations
Best Actress in a Leading Role (Ellen Burstyn as “Doris”)
Best Cinematography (Robert Surtees)
Best Music (Original Song) (“The Last Time I Felt Like This”, music by Marvin Hamlisch; lyrics by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman)
Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium) (Bernard Slade)
Golden Globe Award
Best Performance By An Actress in a Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical (Ellen Burstyn) (tie)
Nominations
Best Performance By An Actor in a Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical (Alan Alda)
Best Original Song-Motion Picture (“The Last Time I Felt Like This”, music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman)
Writers Guild Award Nomination
Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium
