Ein Walzer vor dem Frühstück

I saw this film on Sky at 5am so I wasn't really in the best mood to watch any film. I had an exam that I was dreading(Music GCSE) that morning and so thought some TV would calm me down.And it did.I stumbled across this little light-hearted film and watched it from the start as it had Susan Sarandon in it who starred in my one of my favourite films,The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It made me relax and forget about the terror of GCSEs for an hour and a half. It was astonishingly average but very harmless and if taken as a bit of fun then it'll be enjoyed.

Everyone knows Shirley MacLaine can dance. So what happened? It's a very small part of the movie, but there's a scene where Shirley dances around to a "groovy tune" with her lover. Either she's absolutely clueless without a choreographer, or the choreographer wanted the audience to think she was completely unskilled. For me, that was the most memorable part of Loving Couples. The rest of it wasn't much better.

In the film, a middle-aged man leaves his wife for a younger woman. In response, his wife takes up with a younger man. Awkward situations, supposed jealousies, and incredibly unconvincing romances take up the screen for 90 minutes. Plus, it's pretty much the exact same plot as A Change of Seasons, also starring Shirley MacLaine, and also from 1980. Skip this one, even if you're a Shirley MacLaine or Susan Sarandon fan; it just isn't worth it.

I noticed that the summary for this film says 'hilarity ensues' and the film is billed as a comedy. However, if you watch the film without being told it's a comedy, you'll likely never know it, as it really isn't funny at all. Instead, it's a sad melodrama about two couples who find that they're looking for someone better...only to realize that happiness doesn't result from a new partner.

When the story begins, Dr. Evelyn Kirby (Shirley MacLaine) is seduced by a younger playboy, Greg (Stephen Collins). At first she's a bit apprehensive but then goes headlong into the affair. Soon Dr. Walter Kirby (James Coburn), Evelyn's husband, is approached by Greg's live-in girlfriend, Stephanie (Susan Sarandon), and she informs him of Greg's affair. Inexplicably, Stephanie and Walter begin an affair of their own.

The film has a decent message....that affairs don't solve a person's boredom and unhappiness. But the story itself if curiously uninvolving...possibly because I found it hard to really care about any of the people involved...they all just seemed amoral and sad. Not a bad movie but one I just found uninteresting.

Recently bought a ebay DVD of this film, and like the pairing of JCoburn & Shirley, as the professional physician contempories who become attracted to each other. One of hilarious early scenes has JCoburn driving in the country side in a convertible sports car, then upon upon gazing at Beautiful Shirley galloping on a horse along the road ..he loses track of the windey turns and crashes into a fence, only to have Shirley come to his aide, being a doctor. Certainly no HOF acting yet given the free wheeling love relationships of the DISCO crazed late 70's, the movie certainly captures the time, as does a similar film "The last Married Couple in America" (GSegal / Natalie Wood) of the era. Plus, I'd bet that the "King of Cool" In-Like-Flint actor with the best "Raised Eye-Brow Look" and best deep voice in Hollywood was also among the romantic suitors of Ms. MacClaine, as she interluded on Oprah, recently. Incidentally, this film was a break from the Ultra-adventure, action packed genre movies that JCoburn was doing thru much of the 60's, 70's, & 80's. I recommend it++,..and to the Republican reviewer who commented 'not to waste your time', I say 'do you remember the 70's ?' Drop the trite 'it was a smokey time' excuses, and don't deny that era didn't happen, and smile with recollection.

Married couple Shirley MacLaine and James Coburn are cheating on each other: she with younger man Stephen Collins; he with Collins' girlfriend, sassy Susan Sarandon. They all meet up--underwater at the pool!--while vacationing at a posh resort. Some fun ideas in this otherwise routine, mercilessly padded romantic comedy from screenwriter Martin Donovan that runs out of ideas awfully fast. A glut of these middle-age-crazy films flooded cinemas in 1979-1980, including "Serial" (both co-starring Sally Kellerman) and MacLaine's own "A Change of Seasons". Audiences weren't interested; it was a with-it movie genre that was without many patrons. *1/2 from ****