Younger and Younger

"Younger and Younger" is a Donald Sutherland film with a very low overall rating of 4.9. And, what's interesting is that several reviewers adored the film...and the rest absolutely hated it. Put me in the latter group.

Sutherland plays Jonathan Younger, the co-owner of a storage facility. However, while he plays and bounces about the place like a puppy, his wife is left to try to run the business. However, one day he's upstairs playing his Wurlitzer organ and boinking some other woman, she's downstairs dying from a heart attack...no doubt brought on by his loud, boisterous bahavior! Soon, his adult son (Brandon Fraser arrives to help him run the place...only for the young man to realize that his father is living in a dreamworld and is of no value in running a business.

The film tried harder to be quirky than any film I've seen in recent years. The problem is finding any reason or coherence for this is a chore, In other words, the weird, quirky parts thrown together don't make for a useful whole. Just a strange and unappealing film to me.

The Sr. Mr. Younger is a basic dirty old man trapped in his own little world and I didn't like his otherwise charming character in that sense. His lovely little wife worked very hard and didn't deserve the treatment he dealt out.

But overall, the movie was good, with an interesting turn of events. I did like it.

The whole movie seems to have a yellowish cast to the film for some reason. In a few scenes the people's teeth were as yellow as mustard. That kind of bugged me.

But whoever said it was boring has no sense of whimsy. I feel sorry for them.

US-German co-production about the stylish owner of a ramshackle storage facility in Los Angeles and his eccentric staff and clientele. Director and co-writer Percy Adlon (who also served as associate producer) might have used some help: everything has been scaled so broadly (beginning with the overacting German woman in the first scene) that one immediately begins to seek some natural light relief or a conversation that holds a modicum of truth. As the devil-may-care owner in love with Los Angeles and the ladies, Donald Sutherland (dressed like an old-time silver fox) has a few nice bits but certainly not enough--it simply isn't there in the writing. There's nothing wrong with putting the emphasis on people over plot script-wise, but first the writers needed to come up with some fascinating individuals for their scenario. This one doesn't have them. * from ****

Found this sleeper on the video shelf a couple of years ago and loved it. Saw it again recently and still enjoyed it. An eccentric film, not for your average vegetable brained young movie viewer. There is no action, no sex (well, not really), just an absorbing story that rolls out in a leisurely fashion, gradually pulling the viewer into this unique locale. Sutherland, Davidovitch and even Kellerman are wonderful. Sutherland must have been delighted to find this role and he made the most of it. Again, not for everyone, but an intriguing trip into a world most of us will never know, but might like to.

Wonderfully acted, an interesting story, and a song that is so good (and, dare I say, commercial?) that it's surprising it hasn't been better discovered along with classic show tunes. It's not the "Show Me Your Face" that appears in a Google search; it's an original song, with music by Bob Telson (also did Baghdad Cafe) and clever lyrics by Lee Breuer. One real treat is Donald Sutherland's singing of this love ballad. Another nice aspect is that it is a his-and-her song, which makes for two person performance in the same way as "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Such songs are pretty rare and valuable. And yes, I'm writing mostly about the song and not the movie - that's because while I enjoyed the movie (a random find on a dusty shelf in a video store), I loved the song to the point of transcribing the lyrics and creating a lead sheet for it.