A Cooler Climate

I saw this last spring ('02) when I rented it from Blockbuster and really thought it a good film. It's a film from Showtime television so it just goes to show how much better pay TV is than basic. Sally & Judy (both nominees at the Emmys and Screen Actors Guild awards for best actress in a TV movie or a miniseries) turn in the best performances as Iris Prue (Field) and Paula Tanner (Davis), two women who you'd think would be the most unlikely pair of girlfriends. Iris is a middle-aged woman who ends up broke after filing for divorce and gets burned after a failed relationship with a man she's too good for and takes a position as housekeeper for Paula at her vacation house in up-state New York. Paula's a frigid, short-fused, frustrated-with-herself socialite who's going through a marriage that's heading down hill... FAST!!! and has a rebellious pre-20s daughter, Beth, who's heading for heartbreak and serious self-destruction. Iris and Beth at first are at odds but then become good friends. Meanwhile, Iris meets and falls in love with Jack (Winston Rekert), the first real man she's met in her life, possibly and things go well until she and Paula come to terms with their relationship. This was a very good film (8/10) that may just become one of those "women films" (I HATE that stereotype) that even us guys will end up liking. I want my mom and grandma to see it, too.

I hadn't intended to watch it, but from the beginning I was engrossed. It moved along at a rapid pace with no long gaps in action. I found the characters to be well defined and enchanting. I highly recommend viewing this movie.

"A Cooler Climate" isn't exactly a film of great brilliance. It's adequate in its execution, not really outstanding in any way. Susan Seidelman is clearly interested in the actors, but doesn't offer much regard to the technical aspects. I watched it for Judy Davis and Sally Field (why else would anyone bother, really?), and they're good enough. But it's possibly two of the least challenging performances I've ever seen from them, all shallow and out on the surface. The music by Patrick Williams is pure cheese, derivative of at least a dozen other similar films. The secondary characters are all cartoons, unconvincing and poorly acted.

This is made-for-TV film at it's least impressive. Normally, it's a low quality I'd never even encounter, but it's the acting talent involved that makes it so disappointing. Never mind with this one.

This movie is awesome. A Divorcée meeting a new love, trying to overcome the mistakes of her past. She is spawning new friendships in a new town, One turning point was when she decided to go to the reading night at the book store. A pompous, starchy, rich bitch who forms a lasting bond of friendship with her house keeper. A couple of reverse rolls--what more could you ask for. A real tear jerker at times. Sally Field has always been one of my favorite actresses and continues to be after seeing this movie. Some of the actors/actresses portrayed, I had never seen before--but I will look for them in the future--in more movies.

Somewhere in-between dreary network made for TV movies and sappy chick flicks on the big screen lies "A Cooler Climate". I walked away from this movie and said, "Well it wasn't painful." Decent acting, decent script, decent story. No big surprises, no big disappointments. Overall a perfectly average movie. Which is fine, because this movie touched on basic human relationships and chronicled how two women started an important friendship that helped both of them put back together their lives. I gave it a seven out of ten just on the basis that nothing about "A Cooler Climate" annoyed me like dreary network made for TV movies or sappy big screen chick flicks. We all need a little forced sentiment in our lives and this was better than most.