Due volte nella vita

At the beginning of "Twice in a Lifetime", when the McKenzie family is sitting around the dining room table celebrating, Ellen Burstyn gives long-time husband Gene Hackman a kiss, but nobody notices how he recoils a bit from her affection or how shaky his smile appears. Here is a well-made dramatic piece for a group of terrific actors, asking us to look at all sides of a divorce, offering only a few pat answers but mostly moving sequences. Hackman quickly falls into a loving relationship--which can be seen as possibly too convenient--but the woman in question is Ann-Margret at her most vivacious, so we can forgive the formula. Burstyn's character goes through the standard changes of the jilted wife, yet the talents of this wonderful actress helps transcend the clichés of such a role (she even gives it subtext and meaning; a movie about her character alone would be worth-watching). Amy Madigan's angry daughter is an overwrought creation, a one-note role, and the way she's written and directed we don't see any nuances--just her irritation. Still, many fine ingredients are included here, and the supporting players are wonderful (particularly Brian Dennehy, always good, and Ally Sheedy). Alternately tough and tender, the emotions played out at the finale are concrete--they make sense--giving this film the edge over similar pictures such as "Smash Palace" and "Shoot The Moon". *** from ****

It's as if scenarist Colin Welland realized, about halfway through writing this rather standard account of a husband and wife breaking up and then readjusting to their new lives, that he didn't have much of a story going on and went "Blimey! Better start padding things out". How else to account for the none too interesting forays into the lives of the couple's two daughters and their spouses? To mention nothing of lots of picture postcards of Seattle on rare sunny days. (Wonder how long the shooting sched had to be to dodge this gloomy burg's pervasive rain and overcast?) That the viewer sticks with it (well, this viewer) without putting a dent in the fast forward is mostly due to the plethora of fine acting by Hackman, Burstyn, Margret, Madigan, Sheedy, Lang and Dennehy. And when the acting is all first rate, even when delivered by the above pros, the director, in this case TV vet Bud Yorkin, must be given some recognition even though Yorkin's visual sense is strictly small screen, and thus totally at the service of Welland.

Gene Hackman plays a guy in midlife crisis: he's been married to boring Ellen Burstyn for like, forever, and he's just met hottie Ann-Margret in the local bar he frequents. What's a man to do?

This thin Colin Welland script (British screenwriter of the overrated CHARIOTS OF FIRE) is enlivened considerably by Hackman's convincing portrayal of a blue-collar Everyman who's mortgaged his life for work and family to the exclusion of any dreams for himself. The decidedly unmelodramatic arc of his life change and its consequences is relatively rare in American films and is more interesting for it. Look for newcomer Amy Madigan lighting up the screen as Hackman's PO'd but devoted daughter. A wistful Pat Metheny score and Nick McLean's cinematography of unglamorous Seattle locations -- back before it became America's trendiest city -- enhance the authentic feel. Bud Yorkin, Norman Lear's former producing partner, directs to good low-key effect. Worth a look for Hackman/Burstyn/Margret fans.

Seriously ... and thankfully they are not. Maybe some of us know a guy like Harry, a regular schmo with an attentive if somewhat mousy and tired wife, nice kinds, grandkids and no mortgage. One day he spies Ann-Margaret, incongruously cast as a lightly used (no previous owner/demonstrator model) and completely unattached barmaid in her first day on the job at Harry's corner bar, just ready to give him an extended, great big wet kiss, because, you know, it's his birthday and also because there has to be an extramarital affair to set this film in motion. The mutual attraction is facile and convenient, and the film does move from one predictable plot point to another: distraught wife, angry daughter, another daughter making a life-changing decision, etc. It's all life-changing but without resolution or any real change: life goes on and perhaps that is the one nod to reality.

As others note this is Lifetime Channel-- (does that still exist?) or Hallmark (maybe sad Hallmark) Channel--level film making, from a TV pro. The cast is first-rate but it's such a predictable and formulaic script, there's really no need to check the spoiler button. This one can't break the five-star threshold to significance.

TWICE IN A LIFETIME is an emotionally-charged family drama that, despite a somewhat muddled screenplay, still works thanks to some solid gold performances. Gene Hackman plays a Seattle steelworker who loves the Seahawks and seems content with his life as he prepares for the wedding of his younger daughter (Ally Sheedy), but still feels something missing in his life. His private mid-life crises move him to leave his devoted wife (Ellen Burstyn) and begin a relationship with a local barmaid (Ann-Margret). His wife resigns herself to his decision but his elder daughter (Amy Madigan) does not and refuses to let Dad off the hook. The screenplay is safe and predictable, but what makes this film worth watching is the powerhouse performances. Hackman's quiet and powerful turn as a man dealing with being at a crossroad he doesn't know how to handle' Burstyn's beautifully-realized vulnerability as the woman who is at a loss as to what went wrong in her marriage and Madigan, in a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination, icy and gripping as the daughter who refuses to accept her parents' divorce. Watching these wonderful actors take you through the roller-coaster of emotions involved in the rending apart of a family, make this movie something very special.