thebuckguy

Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee couldn't act, so instead Max Steiner throws a crescendo every time there's drama to be had with them. That, and Sandra Dee carries on about trying not to be "bad". Constance Ford is terrific as a frigid harpy and Dee's mother, who even calls her a harlot. The film goes on a bit too long, but it it was daring for its day.

Early in the film, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. is checking out a new Edsel at the local Edsel dealer---a car that was a disaster is the perfect metaphor for the disaster that follows. . Laughable product placement like that should tell you that, at best, this is a film filled with unintentional humor. At worst, it's a feature film starring that paargon of wooden acting, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and featuring that blonde dreamboat who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, Troy Donahue.

I saw this when it first came out and occasional TV viewings since then haven't made me a fan. Some time after seeing this, I saw "Return of the Secaucus 7" which probably inspired it--the director of "The Big Chill", Lawrence Kasdan used to deny ever hearing of Secaucus 7, and later just denied seeing it. Unconvincing, because it was a movie that played for months at some theaters and helped usher in the 80s/90s wave of indie film. John Sayles made it for $20K, employing actor friends and using a plot that brought together college classmates, most of whom had gone on in the way normal ways that people often did in their first 10-15 years after college and even poked fun at their old political idealism. It even had a subplot involving a penis, like "Big Chill". Despite cheap production values, I saw why people had loved it--Secaucus 7 captured change and provided a natural setting of friendships gone deep and frayed. As for "Big Chill", it's easy to see why many critics and members of the public never liked it. It's basically a high concept version of Secaucus 7--better production values, middling known actors and overly dramatic, cynical shifts in people's lives. The acting seems flat and the characters don't really seem to engage each other. At least we were spared Kevin Costner trying to act--I always though he should have stuck to corpses. The best parts were William Hurt who probably was playing himself--not literally, but he has the best lines and delivery and carries off the most twisted, if somewhat unbelievable back story. And then the soundtrack...without it the vapid quality of the movie would have been in the foreground throughout.