Coast to Coast

This is a funny movie with some smart dialog and a couple adults in adult situations for a change. Thoroughly enjoyable. Dryfus is in control and not doing his "cute" routine. Davis is believable and always nice to see an old vet like Fred Ward. Sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy a movie and be entertained.In an era of movies pandering to functional illiterates with the attention span of a bi-polar humming bird on crank, it's enjoyable to see a movie with people actually speaking to each other in complete sentences. Or if it isn't your style, there is always the latest Ben Stiller movie. I understand there is a hum dinger staring a blind ferret.

My wife and I discovered this movie (accidentally) when TiVo recorded it for us. We noticed the great cast so decided to give it a try. It had us captivated right from the start.

No formula TV movie here. Coast to Coast is refreshingly original; doesn't neatly fit into any particular genre. It was both very funny and emotional, yet felt true-to-life.

This is a movie made by intelligent people for intelligent people. We particularly enjoyed the witty dialogue and the wonderful characters Dreyfuss and Davis meet along their journey. These are two great actors at their best.

Lately, it seems that good movies are few and far between, so this was a real treat for us.

Richard Dreyfuss and Judy Davis shine in this contemporary story of a couple whose marriage has literally gone astray, part in fact due to the infidelity of both partners and the fact that their eldest son was killed in a car accident 8 years before.

Davis looks like she has really gone through the ringer here. As the emotionally distraught, she depicts an emotional and psychological hang-up which is certainly memorable. She is equally matched by Dreyfuss, who also pulls no punches as the husband.

They plan to end their marriage by going out to Los Angeles to attend the wedding of their surviving son and making important stops along the way. These stops are memorable as they depict the sudden demise of the co-writer, wittingly played by director Paul Mazursky. There is also the daughter, not married, pregnant girl who has broken up with the baby's father to only start a new relationship with a basketball player.

This is definitely a poignant story brought to the screen by great performances as well as a sharp dialogue.

The musical score is wonderful here.

"Coast to Coast" sticks Dreyfuss and Davis front and center as a middle-aged couple on the verge of divorce who take a road trip from East to West coasts to attend their son's marriage while waxing nostalgic, visiting quirky friends, and sorting through old regrets along the way. Supposedly a poignant dramedy about reconciliation, this lame dose of couch potato fodder from Showtime has Toronto standing in for the US and a big hole where the entertainment should be. One can only speculate that budgetary constraints got between the cast and crew and a quality film product result. Coulda-shoulda been better, "Coast to Coast" is an uneven, uninspired nice-try-but-no-cigar near miss. (C)

This is certainly an enjoyable movie with some very sharp witty remarks scattered throughout the dialogue.

The main criticisms I have are:

1. The awful music score. It sounds as though it was put together on a cheap and nasty electronic keyboard. It grated on me throughout the film.

2. Some of the longer scenes of two people talking to each other were just too long. A cut-away or two would have relieved the tedium. Yes, the 'conversations' were, in the main, very relevant to the plot, but were just too long. A few more snips with the scissors in the editing room would not have gone amiss.

3. Those infernal maps! Ugh! They lent a real 'cheap and nasty' air to the movie, which was a pity.

As far as I'm concerned, the 'test' for a good movie is whether I will watch it again or not. This one scores scores a definite 'maybe'.