Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing

Yes, it's too romantic. Yes, it's a fairy tale. But it's so lovely. Timothy Bottoms is a loser on a bus trip through Spain where he meets his female counterpart, Maggie Smith. Of course, she's older than he is, but they soon find out they're kindred spirits. This movie is a dream. I, of course, am a romantic, so I loved it from the moment I first saw it, when I was just a kid. If you're a romantic, you'll love it too.

After viewing Love and Pain nearly thirty years after it's initial release, I felt that this film had certainly passed the test of time. This sometimes overlooked film is an excellent vehicle for Maggie Smith in a dramatic role; even more believable than her classic, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Initially the film appears to be a very clever, dry comedy, accented by Maggie Smith's prim and proper British morals pitted against Timothy Bottom's portrayal of a rich, but socially awkward American student. From the hysterically funny camping-trailer scene to the bitter-sweet twist at the end, Love and Pain is a timeless treasure worthy of a place on your video shelf!

This is a great low key film. Maggie Smith is wonderful in this off beat drama/comedy. She did this I believe after " The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie " but her performance is clearly up to that standard. It really is a very sweet love story with the ups and downs of a relationship between Maggie and Timothy Bottoms. His performance is also very good and kept very low key much like the film in general. I don't know why it is not available on DVD or VHS? I happen to have recorded it off of a Canadian Broadcast years ago. I have also tried searching a number of rental house to no avail. If Mr. Pakula reads this please find away to make this little gem of a film available to everyone. Thank You.

I saw this film for the first time when it was coupled with "the main film"...The Dove. Fortunately this film came on first and afterwards, during the preview of The Dove, most of the audience left. They clearly had come to see Maggie Smith. This is an absolutely perfect film and I would love to share it with other people.

This is a delightful film of coming of age, and coming to life. The one, a young man, suffocated by his blue-blood family, finds himself in the eyes of an older woman. And she, a not-quite-middle-aged spinster suffocated by her roles in life, is yearning for something to live for as she faces a final illness. He falls in love with her unaffected realism; and she with his boyish enthusiasm and unashamed wonder at the world. Together they struggle with what they see as a lack of tolerable options for such an odd couple; while learning more and more to depend on each other for much more than friendship. Together they discover Europe, and life, and each other, and themselves ... and bring us all a little more to life when they do.