Personnel et confidentiel

Even though I feel Robert Redford is getting a bit old to play the romantic hero, I did enjoy this movie. I liked the newsroom setting. I felt Michelle Pfeiffer gave a very good performance and that she and Mr. Redford had a very likeable chemistry. I didn't care for the ending, but it was good viewing on the whole. A good love story.

While this is definitely a "women's movie," a man can enjoy this, too. I did, but not enough to see it twice or to purchase it. Supposedly, it's the story of former television news reporters Jessica Savitch and Ron Kershaw.

Robert Redford is good at playing the veteran newsman teaching Michelle Peiffer (Savitch) the business. He does more than that, of course, being her lover and then her husband. With Redford, you know you are going to get a dose of Liberal politics in the mix and in here, it's let's-feel-sorry-for-the-prison inmates. The preaching is "they are in jail to be rehabilitated." Well, that sounds nice but whatever happened to jail as a form of punishment for someone committing a crime against someone else? Liberals - like Redford, who is never shy about giving us his views in movies like this - sometimes seem to have more compassion for thugs than they do victims of crime! He goes so far in here as to preach that if you don't treat prisoners with kid gloves you deserve to have a riot on your hands.

Outside of all that heavy-handedness, you get a nice romance with solid acting all around, not only from the two leads but the supporting case with people like Stockarrd Channnng, Joe Mantegna, Kate Nelligan, Glen Plummer and James Rebhorn.

It has been a long time since a film has made me cry. I can't remember crying like this since Beaches and Steel Magnolias years ago. To be honest the movie seemed a little boring and overacted to start with - Pfeiffer was very much as she had been in Dangerous Minds, controversial and unique (not that that is a bad thing, just repetitive). However, once you move past the 'a star is born' bit, the developing relationship between Warren Justice (Redford) and Tally Attwater is a beautiful and believable one. It is also interesting to get a look at how the TV news may operate behind-the-scenes.

Unlike so many star couplets today, Redford and Pfeiffer have true on-screen chemistry and are at their best in this film.

Sally 'Tally' Atwater (Michelle Pfeiffer) is ambitious and green starting out as a local TV reporter in Miami hired by news director Warren Justice (Robert Redford) from her amateur tape. They fall in love as he grooms her rise from weather girl to star reporter in the newsroom. Agent Bucky Terranova (Joe Mantegna) recruits her to a bigger Philadelphia station. She struggles from jabs by jealous anchor Marcia McGrath (Stockard Channing) and unkind public judgment. Warren has been struggling himself. Sensing her despair, he goes to Philadelphia to help her recover.

This is loosely based on the late NBC News anchor Jessica Savitch but it has more in common with the play Pygmalion. It's a bit too broad at first with Pfeiffer stumbling awkwardly to portray inexperience. It's so broad that it actually becomes off-putting. There is also the age difference but Pfeiffer and Redford are great enough to overcome it. The plot has much of the formula of a good romance but it just feels false. The actors' cinematic presence helps a lot. In the end, I don't feel it.

"Up Close and Personal" proves again that charismatic stars and good production values can overcome a weak story. This story of two television journalists (Redford and Pfeiffer) has few surprises, no fresh insights about the news business, and its big moments are both predictable and overblown. Nevertheless, Redford and Pfeiffer provide enough star power to make for a reasonably entertaining couple of hours. There is one particularly funny line, though. When the Pfeiffer character says of a co-worker, "He's so stupid!" her boyfriend, the Redford character, with a quizzical expression on his face, says, "He's an anchorman." 6 out of 10, marginally recommended.