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Wednesday 13 November 2013

THE LAST MARRIED COUPLE IN AMÉRICA (1980) WEB SITE

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Be happy in your relationship
                       
Natalie Wood was best known for her childhood role in "Miracle on 34th Street". And don't forget the sexual revolution film, "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice". I'm this film it is quite similar, only with morals to back it up. George Segal and Natalie Wood play Jeff and Mari Thompson, a married couple with three boys. They have friends who are married. Then suddenly, each one they knew have separated or divorced. And they began to question their own relationship. Their marriage is tested when Maria's friend Barbara(Valerie Harper) comes into town, and hits on Jeff. Knowing to be very faithful to his wife, he would brush her off. Until one night, he did the deed. After getting a STD, Mari decided to do the same. The only thing they could get back together is with a friend's birthday party. This movie has got a great cast and great scenes. Dom Deluise was great. And I couldn't picture Valerie Harper as a blonde. She did look great though. And my favorite scene was the birthday surprises. Taking Jeff to his hangout, and flashing him when he was unaware of the fur coat suspicion. It's a very good movie, I enjoyed every moment of it. 3.5 out of 5 stars
 
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See it for Natalie Wood
 
No, this isn't a very good movie. Fun to watch though if for no other reason than to laugh at the supposed 'hip' attitude of the whole thing when in truth it's about as conventional as a Love Boat episode. The party scene at the end with the hookers, swingers and disco version of 'Singin' in the Rain' is hilarious.
But the reason to see this movie is for Natalie Wood, who gives this film heart. She's absolutely wonderful in it. She was a terrific actress, even in something as frivolous as this ... funny, beautiful, a class act to the very end! None of today's actresses come close to her kind of star-power. I miss great actresses like Natalie Wood.
 
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Bluish comedy with an underlining moral...adult peer pressure leading to extramarital activities
 
George Segal and Natalie Wood portray an upper-class married couple in Los Angeles who find they are the last of a dying breed: all the men and women within their circle of friends are separated from their spouses, divorced, or on the make. Occasionally smart and amusing screenplay by John Herman Shaner doesn't take a righteous stand on the sexy goings-on, though Shaner is quick to point out the pitfalls of the swinging middle-ager (impotency, venereal disease, unfulfilled coupling). Gilbert Cates directs it like an R-rated TV show, though some of the intended bite (laced with grown-up, witty humor) manages to come through, and the cast is good--however less of hammy Dom DeLuise would have been an improvement. Wood, in particular, shows a great deal of growth since her not-dissimilar dalliance with sexual inhibitions in 1969's "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"; she's surprisingly loose and physical here, and works comfortably with Segal, though George himself is rather wrung-out. With the sexual revolution of the 1970s fading fast upon its release, the film didn't stand a chance at the box-office, but parts of it are very funny and trenchant and have held up well.
 
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 A Great Comedy of Late Seventies 
 

One of the most underrated movies of late seventies.Good direction by Gilbert Cates in a witty screenplay the players are excellent.The chemistry between Wood and Segal are a gift from heaven.The scenes between the main characters are touching.The supporting players are nice too specially Dom DeLuise and Marilyn Sokol.A movie to be discover.
 
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Not too bad 
 
Jeff (George Segal) and Mari (Natalie Wood) Thompson are a happily married couple...but all the other married couples they know are divorced or separated and seem happy being single. It leads them to start questioning their own marriage and if they really are happy.
I only caught this for Natalie Wood. This film was not a success (I remember it bombed badly back in 1980) and it was Wood's second to last theatrical film. It's not as bad as I've heard but no great movie either. It has a LOT of sex talk and jokes and bed hopping (this was pre-AIDS) but surprisingly no nudity till the very end. In fact, it plays a lot like an R rated sitcom. The script actually isn't bad--it perfectly captures the late 1970s styles, language and attitude towards sex and marriage. But, it cops out at the end and becomes VERY conventional. Pretty typical for a Hollywood sex comedy. The cast is very attractive--Segal overacts but in an endearing way, Wood is just great and looks fantastic (it's surprising to hear her swear!} and Valerie Harper is excellent as a sexually liberated woman. The biggest problem here is that it's never really funny. It's only mildly amusing at best. Still if you're interested in the 1970s and their view of sex you'll probably like this.
 
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CRITICA EN EL PERIÓDICO "LA VANGUARDIA" (18-10-1980)
 
La controversia que rodea al proyecto de ley sobre el divorcio, parece conceder a este filme una actualidad que tampoco debe sobrevalorarse. Los hechos caricaturizados en una comedia americana de corte costumbrista, difícilmente resultan equiparables a nuestra realidad. Uno de los personajes de la película, abogado especialmente en divorcios y separaciones matrimoniales, afirma: <el divorcio en la industria norteamericana más próspera>. En una sociedad basaba en el consumo, el divorcio abre sin duda la espita de nuevas transacciones comerciales. sin embargo <La última pareja>, como filme que intenta satirizar ciertos aspectos de un país donde el divorcio ya no es novedad, afronta en clave de comedia la crisis de la propia institución matrimonial. En este sentido, la película adopta una postura decididamente conservadora que acaso deba interpretase como reacción ante la frivolidad de algunos comportamientos que se ampara en la moderna liberalidad de costumbres. ¿Está el matrimonio pasado de moda?. El filme intenta contestar esta pregunta, pero lo hace con argumentaciones tan divertidas como parciales. El arquitecto Jeff Thomson (George Segal) y su esposa Mary (Natalie Wood) componen el típico matrimonio modelo. Acostumbran a pasar los fines de semana en compañía de otros matrimonios, también felices en aparencia. Pero estas idilicas reuniones campestres, empiezan a registrar bajas; los matrimonios amigos se separan o divorcian, así que la protagonista se convierte realmente en <la última pareja> de su circulo social. Son casi un producto anacrónico para estos amigos que, de la noche a la mañana, han recobrado la <libertad>, pueden vivir su vida sin ataduras de ninguna clase y recuperar el tiempo perdido. Semejante fiebre divorcista terminará por hacer mella en Jeff y Mary, que no pueden permanecer ajenos viendo tanto naufragio matrimonial, y se sienten obligados a cuestionar su aparente felicidad conyugal. De Gilbert Cates, pudimos ver hace varios meses <Promesa de amor>, un melodrama de aquí te espero. En esta ocasión cambia de género y dirige con cierta impersonalidad una comedia que se apoya en el juego de sus interpretes, y sobre todo en la ingeniosidad de sus diálogos, dos consumados comediantes como George Segal y Natalie Wood encuentran un guión que les permite lucir sus dotes histriónicas. Sin olvidar la eficacia, en cometidos secundarios, de Richard Benjamin o el gordo Don de Luise. <La última pareja> es una película en la que subyace una gran carga moralista. Pero su notaria parcialidad -la epidemia divorcista reflejada en el filme no distingue entre crisis matrimoniales auténticas y frivolidad de costumbres- impide su adopción como punto de referencia en cualquier discusión a favor del divorcio. Se trata en suma de una comedia que se visiona con la sonrisa en los labios gracias al trabajo de sus intérpretes y a las situaciones desarrolladas con habilidad por un guionista de indudable talento. Ll. BONET MOJICA


 

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