The Four Seasons

Alan Alda the actor has come up with a few worthwhile projects over the years as a writer and director. This movie, his feature directorial debut, is quite enjoyable.

Three upper-middle class couples are seen during the four vacations they take annually. They enjoy each others' company, but a fissure in the friendships begins to grows when one man tires of life with his wife and introduces his new, younger girlfriend into the group, and things go from there. Alda manages very successfully the balance between comedy and drama, aided by the excellent cast of veterans. All the principals here (the first seven listed in the credits) do fine work.

THE FOUR SEASONS (1981) *** Alan Alda, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Jack Weston, Len Cariou, Sandy Dennis, Bess Armstrong. Alda, who wrote and directed, assembles a veteran cast of colorful couples spending their quarterly vacations together during one memorable year of change and confrontations of middle age craziness with deft and frequently funny aplomb. The choice to use Vivaldi's `Four Seasons' and the beautiful scenery only underscores the theme perfectly. Trivial note: the college-aged girls the group visit for parents' day are actually Alda's real-life daughters.

Ever since I watched her as a kid on The Electric Company and The Rockford Files, I have always loved Rita Moreno. She is one of the best actresses EVER! and most people don't even realize this. She is the only entertainer in history to have won the highest award in all four mediums of entertainment. She has won an Oscar for her movie work, an Emmy for her tv work, a Tony for her stage work and a Grammy for her singing. She is in the Guiness Book of World Records as a matter of fact. People do not realize that Alan Alda wrote many of the episodes of MASH (as they also don't realize Michael Landon wrote many episodes of Little House). He is both a great comic and a great comic writer who is wonderful and witty with words. He also directed this film and did an outstanding job. It is a beautiful film to look at with the lovely scenery and the change of seasons, symbolic of the conflicts the three couples are going through. Alda created six wonderful characters that you really care about and feel bad for and perhaps you see a little bit of yourself in them. Alda's character thinks that he is so in control, Jack Weston's character is a hammy, blustering hypochondriac (Alda says at one point that he is "the Muhammad Ali of mental illness"). Bess Armstrong was just getting her start in films at the time and she is really wonderful as Len Carou's ditzy girlfriend. Sandy Dennis's career had gotten off to an amazing start when she was in "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf" but it never really took off the way it should have and she died so young of cancer. She gives a wonderful performance in this film. It is rather low key, but you feel this woman's pain as her husband leaves her for this bimbo. You really feel angry for her. Carol Burnett is a wonderful comic, but a fine actress as well (she was great in Annie), she gives a really sensitive performance especially in the scene where she tells Alda to s*&t or get off the pot! How touching Carol! Seriously Rita Moreno is my favorite in this film. I love Claudia, she is kind and sweet and affectionate and so very very ITALIAN! Rita Moreno should have gotten an Oscar for her performance. She even has a brief nude scene in the film. I don't mean to sound sexist but she looked fantastic! God bless you Rita!

I actually saw this movie by chance... A friend of mine saw the VHS on a shelf, tucked away in the back of Cinema 1. She pointed it out, and I bought it immediately.

The storyline itself isn't realistic; very rarely would this happen in real life (if ever), but it's touching, funny and brilliantly acted. Alda and Burnette have incredibly great chemistry on-screen. It's a laugh a minute with those two. The characters are so finely drawn with their own little quirks and personalities that it's easy to believe they're real.

The film also shows just how easy it is for something so seemingly trivial can threaten a friendship--- In this case, it was the addition of Ginny.

The seasons seem to perfectly follow the character's moods. During the spring and summer, the atmosphere is pleasant and carefree; nothing can go wrong, the sky is the limit. And as the weather turns colder, the moods follow suit, reaching the `coldest' point during the winter, where their true colours begin to show.

Oddly enough, though I bought the movie to see Alan Alda, Anne Callan (played by Sandy Dennis), turned out to be the highlight of the film for me. In contrast to the ditzy and annoying Ginny, Anne is incredibly witty, albeit a little off-beat and *out there*. She has some hilarious lines, and Dennis delivers them perfectly-"The hell with Nick. Tell him it's a goddamn boa constrictor!" And her wacky memory (for example, remembering the day she got her tooth filled)- Too funny.

Whether or not you're a fan of any of the actors or actresses in this movie, I highly recommend it. You'll fall in love with it.

I'm always surprised to read negative comments on this film. I guess I have a strange sense of humor because there are parts of this movie--quite a few parts as a matter of fact--that I find simply hysterical. There are also parts that are maddening--I do not care for Sandy Dennis' (ex)-husband at all. When you have seen the movie as many times as I have, you also begin to find flaws in the dialogue & situations--things that don't make sense to you. But never enough to make me dislike this film which has so many more truths about human nature & couples. Every one of the cast is good in their roles. Carol Burnett & Alan Alda are perfect together & have one scene in the "Fall" section that cracks me up every time. Rita Moreno was truly funny. When her husband, played by Jack Weston, leans out the window on the hotel & shouts, "She's Italian!" "There, now everyone in the state of CT knows that you're Italian." Though I've often thought that she had every right to say what led up to this scene, it is still very very funny.

I just wish it would come out on DVD. I would definitely get it.