Olivers Story

18 months after the death of his wife Jenny to leukemia, Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) has thrown himself into his work leaving his personal life largely neglected as he still hasn't fully recovered from losing Jenny. Oliver maintains close contact with his ex-father-in-law Phil (Ed Binns) and a small social circle who try to encourage Oliver to play the field. It isn't until he meets Marcie Nash (Candice Bergen) in the park that Oliver begins to feel perhaps there could be a chance again for love, but the two's differing outlooks regarding their social and financial status becomes a point of contention.

Love Story despite its low budget became a sleeper hit in 1970 becoming the highest grossing film of that year eclipsing films such as Airport, M*A*S*H, and Patton in box office receipts and even managed to earn a number of Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Paramount had been interested in doing a sequel following the success of Love Story but the nature of follow-up rights was messy behind the scenes with writer Erich Segal having penned both the screenplay and the novelization and while Paramount did own rights on a film sequel and commissioned Edward Hume to write the a draft that ultimately wasn't used, Segal had publishing rights on his novel leading to the publication of Oliver's Story which was eyed by producer Lew Garde's ITC entertainment for possible acquisition prior to Paramount executing their right of first refusal and purchasing the rights. The movie also had yet another hang up in that Ryan O'Neal didn't like Segal's screenplay and turned down a $3 million offer to reprise his role as Oliver. Following John Korty's considerable re-write of Segal's screenplay that earned him a co-writing credit this proved to be enough to win O'Neal back. John Korty had previously directed smaller scale films including his Academy Award winning documentary "Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?". Korty was not a fan of the original Love Story and saw the sequel as an opportunity to develop and analyze Oliver Barret as a character rather than the archetype he was in the original film and sought to make the wealthy young people focused upon in the film more real and believable. Korty's ambitions are certainly admirable in trying to take something like Love Story that was primarily based on emotion in place of substance and try to add substance to it and I do prefer Oliver's Story slightly over Love Story, but only slightly.

With Oliver's Story the film starts off from Jenny's funeral which kicks off Oliver's arc through the film. With his lingering grief from the death of his wife, Oliver has thrown himself into his work taking on cases for tenants on New York's Lower East Side and really only maintaining any regular contact with Jenny's father Phil who tries to alleviate Oliver's guilt by telling him it's okay to move on. There's a refreshingly awkward frankness to the opening scenes in the movie with Oliver shown trying the various scenes such as a singles bar with his father-in-law or his college friend and his wife trying to setup Oliver with a potential prospect, and we also see Oliver going to therapy where he discusses his feelings with a psychiatrist who tries to help him get perspective on things. I think O'Neal is good in the role especially since Korty does give him more meat to chew on characterwise as the first movie didn't really have much to the characters and really coasted by more on the chemistry between Ali MacGraw and O'Neal so Korty is giving an earnest attempt at actually diving into and understanding grief at the death of a loved one.

What doesn't work as well is the actual love story with Candice Bergen's Marcie Nash who's real name is Marcie Bonwit and this is where I feel the movie begins to lose it a little. I never really resonated with her character in the film and some of the disagreements they have seemed really confused at parts and forced at others. We also have a very brief moment with Nicola Pagett of ITV's Upstairs Downstairs playing an initial prospect in Joanna who seems to have chemistry with Oliver but almost as soon as she's introduced she's gone from the movie never to be seen again. Apparently Bergen was an 11th hour casting decision as the production team scrambled to find a female lead. Bergen's a good actress but I don't think she was really able to work within this character or material and she feels ill defined as a result. Another unfortunate aspect of the film is John Marley being replaced (due to billing disagreements) by Ed Binns as Jenny's father Phil and that absence is felt as his Academy Award nominated performance was one of the few things I gave credit to the original film for and while Binns is trying he doesn't convey that sense of history you expect with O'Neal's character so it plays awkward especially if you remember the original film. After dealing with behind the scenes rights negotiations and Ryan O'Neal refusing to comeback, you get the sense Paramount just wanted the movie out the door and left Marley as an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice to just put the film before cameras.

Oliver's Story is slightly better than Love Story as Korty replaces the overwrought maudlin tone of the original film with an attempt at being a more substantive character piece and you can see flashes of a good movie trying to get out but held back by Segal's writing style that clashes with the more grounded approach by Korty. I will say the ending is a MASSIVE improvement from the one in the book and there is a sense of optimism from Oliver for the future which I did appreciate, but in the end Oliver's story is Korty attempting to get a purse from a sow's ear and only just barely not quite succeeding.

History is created by the LOVE STORY millions of million people watch and feel the love so why the hell sequel that hurt on heart should be remains by sequel they try to heal the actor... That the audience doesnot like sometime heart breaks are good..

America's favorite romantic couple back in the 70s were definitely Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw from Love Story. I think Oliver's Story was a film that Paramount had to remake because I think America wanted to know how Oliver Barrett carried on without Jenny Cavelleri.

That's where Oliver's Story begins, he's become the successful lawyer that he strived for. But he's empty, Jenny so completed him that everything and everyone else is measured by her. That is true of Candice Bergen, a successful owner of a textile company who O'Neal tries to get something going with.

Watching the film they'll be several different schools of thought as to whether things might have worked out between O'Neal and Bergen. It is clear that O'Neal just won't reconcile himself that life goes on and as long as he's fogging a mirror he's part of life.

One thing I did like in this film is the reconciliation between O'Neal and his father Ray Milland, the only two who repeated their roles from Love Story. Those scenes in the mill where the Barrett family fortune was made are quite well done, best part of Oliver's Story by far.

It's not Love Story by any means, but Oliver's Story is a decent enough film on its own merits and doesn't deserve the trashing it got.

I'm a huge fan of love story and I only found out that there is a sequel last week. So I have ordered Oliver's story dvd and watched it. I was so curious at the end of love story to know what happened to Oliver since the departure of Jenny, so I was so excited to watch the sequel. The beginning (funeral part) was amazing, But the rest of the film was not really the best as Oliver seems lost and confused. The best thing was that finally he reconciliate with his father and started to run the family business, I also enjoyed the end as I felt it was an open end which I was so pleased with as I can't imagine oliver being with someone else apart from Jenny. Overall it's a good film not the best, maybe it could of been better if they used old footage of Jenny and Oliver together.

Very good little film, picked it a VHS copy at nearby thrift store for a dollar or less. I had never seen LOVE STORY so I can't compared it to that, rather I'm reviewing this as a stand alone film. The relationship between Ryan O'Neal and Candice Bergen was realistic and loaded with clever dialogue. They way they meet and court was unique as well. This film was made while Ryan was still at his youthful peak and he is fun to watch. There is even a shower scene where you can see him nude from the backside which is a hoot. All in all, not an unpleasant way to spend an hour and a half or so. Another film to add to the excellent reservoir of 70's cinema.