Up Close & Personal

I don't know how anyone could watch this movie and not love it. The line up of actors in the move are amazing and maybe that's why some people expected a different kind of movie. The movie moves a long perfectly, telling the story in a great time line. It doesn't drag and there is not one part of the story that doesn't fit. It's as if a friend is telling you the main highlights of a friends' love life. I gave it a ten - Redford an Pfieffer make a great, believable couple and you can tell they put their heart into this movie. They both play people who are intelligent and aren't afraid to fight for what they believe it, something we all strive for. Get a tissue, you'll need it.

Director: Jon Avnet Running Time: 124 minutes Rated PG-13 (for some sensuality, language, and brief violence)

"Up Close & Personal" is one hundred percent a chick flick-but it is an effective one. With his new romantic drama director Jon Avnet has created a relevant, realistic, interesting behind-the-scenes look at news broadcasting, relationships, and journalism.

The story centers on a young energetic woman, named Sally Atwater, who, in desperation to find the job of her dreams, sends an application to be a television newscaster and work with the biggest names in the business. One of them is Warren Justice, played cleverly by Robert Redford, who lives an opposite life from the clumsy, tactless, and silly Sally. Of course she gets the job, falls in love with Warren, and experiences difficulties with her occupation as well as romance.

The film's first act is near perfect: it introduces the characters and guidelines, exactly what a good first act is supposed to do. We initially meet an opportunity starving underdog, the external conflict, then move on the romantic complications in the second act, the internal conflict. The second act also provides the gradual increase in romantic chemistry; for once we don't have a typical love at first sight story. Both problems are eventually resolved efficiently, but getting there is what contains the original felling.

What makes the characters so relateable in "Up Close & Personal" is the people who they are. Sally is a down-to-earth human being, blooming with cute charm and amiable qualities. She isn't presented as a glamorous, high stakes, important individual, but completely the opposite--perhaps a little too underdogish at times. Warren provides us with a stern opposite to Sally, forming tension. Their slow character development is totally appropriate, as well as effective, here.

The leading characters are played delicately by Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer; the right choice for each. Both pay special attention to the nitty gritty details within the characters. They are very careful not too overdue their characters and subdue the audience. This is not a deep picture, although the closing may catch a few unexpected viewers weeping, it's a light hearted, evenly presented, well-plotted romantic comedy-the filmmakers don't often pretend otherwise.

"Up Close & Personal" is not your typical love story. It is not slow moving, but full of colorful characters, interesting situations, focused point of views, and a suave atmosphere. It is a romantic comedy worth the watch time and your money.

Brought to you by Touchstone Pictures.

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.

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.

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.