Historia de Oliver

The (belated) sequel to "Love Story", "Oliver's Story" was rejected by audiences at the box office, and it's all but forgotten today, even with it being released on both VHS and DVD. Watching it, it's pretty easy to figure out why. For one thing, it's hard to sympathize with Oliver; while he has lost his wife, he is rich and with a good job, and he just silently mopes around instead of expressing anguish or sadness. Not surprisingly, O'Neal performance is lacklustre. While Candace Bergman actually give a better performance than most of the other movies she made in the '70s, she lacks spark and spirit. What on earth do these two people see in each other? And the end of the movie is very unsatisfying, leaving the characters' plot threads in the air. The only real good thing about the movie is Ray Milland, though he only makes a few brief appearances.

Oliver Barrett, a young widower-lawyer in New York City, is morose at singles bars, a dud on fix-up dates and misty-eyed on the analyst's couch; while visiting an old haunt, he meets a beautiful woman jogging who sasses him and challenges him to a game of tennis ("Bring your ass," she tells him, "so I can whip it!"--to which Oliver replies, "Well, I guess you'll bring the balls!"). Erich Segal co-adapted his novel, a sequel to 1970's hugely popular "Love Story", but quickly found that his audience had moved on. Ryan O'Neal returns as Oliver, and Ray Milland is back as Barrett's stern father, but what's the point beyond the hazards of trying to replace a deceased love with a replica? One can sense right away that Segal is trying to resurrect the past, not just follow it up; he has the audacity to begin the film with Jenny's funeral (the mourners sniffling, the casket being lowered into the ground, etc.) while Francis Lai's 1970 love theme rises up in the background. We're just passed the opening credits and the picture is already putting the squeeze on us. Jump ahead 18 months and Oliver, waking up to Jenny's picture on the end table, is being told to get on with it (his father-in-law tells him, "If it had been you who died and not Jenny...well, she wasn't the type to enter a nunnery."). It's all very polished and smooth and banal, with Candice Bergen the all-knowing new girlfriend: too smart, too pert, too sensitive. *1/2 from ****

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.

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.

I found Love Story a very touching and endearing film. I have that movie on video and looked forward to renting the sequel, Oliver's Story. A continuation of Oliver's life without his beloved Jenny.

This was an awful movie. Of course, I wasn't expecting it to be as good as the first, especially since Jenny had passed. But I was hoping Oliver could move on and find happiness elsewhere, in love and his professional life. But Ryan O'Neal and Candice Bergen ignite no sparks together and just plain didn't look good together onscreen. The whole film is dark, shallow and depressing. (Warning: The faint of heart should be careful when watching the film's opening scene at Jenny's grave site. Especially if you are up watching it late at night.)

Only Ryan O'Neal and Ray Milland as Oliver's father are back from Love Story, and I was happy to see that both Oliver Barretts had resolved their differences and began to build a genuine father/son relationship. On the other hand, I was EXTREMELY disappointed when it came to Jenny's father Phil. Not only is he played by a different actor, who has a completely different look, Phil's character has changed from a widowed, simple pastry shop owner to a woman hungry bar-hopper who wants Oliver to come to a singles bar with him. (Phil in Love Story would never have done that!)

Chances are, if you loved Love Story, you'll be extremely disappointed in Oliver's Story. The cast tries their best but they cannot overcome the awful script and the flat direction.