A História de Oliver

The (belated) sequel to "Love Story", "Oliver's Story" was rejected by audiences at the box office, and it's all but forgotten today, even with it being released on both VHS and DVD. Watching it, it's pretty easy to figure out why. For one thing, it's hard to sympathize with Oliver; while he has lost his wife, he is rich and with a good job, and he just silently mopes around instead of expressing anguish or sadness. Not surprisingly, O'Neal performance is lacklustre. While Candace Bergman actually give a better performance than most of the other movies she made in the '70s, she lacks spark and spirit. What on earth do these two people see in each other? And the end of the movie is very unsatisfying, leaving the characters' plot threads in the air. The only real good thing about the movie is Ray Milland, though he only makes a few brief appearances.

I found Love Story a very touching and endearing film. I have that movie on video and looked forward to renting the sequel, Oliver's Story. A continuation of Oliver's life without his beloved Jenny.

This was an awful movie. Of course, I wasn't expecting it to be as good as the first, especially since Jenny had passed. But I was hoping Oliver could move on and find happiness elsewhere, in love and his professional life. But Ryan O'Neal and Candice Bergen ignite no sparks together and just plain didn't look good together onscreen. The whole film is dark, shallow and depressing. (Warning: The faint of heart should be careful when watching the film's opening scene at Jenny's grave site. Especially if you are up watching it late at night.)

Only Ryan O'Neal and Ray Milland as Oliver's father are back from Love Story, and I was happy to see that both Oliver Barretts had resolved their differences and began to build a genuine father/son relationship. On the other hand, I was EXTREMELY disappointed when it came to Jenny's father Phil. Not only is he played by a different actor, who has a completely different look, Phil's character has changed from a widowed, simple pastry shop owner to a woman hungry bar-hopper who wants Oliver to come to a singles bar with him. (Phil in Love Story would never have done that!)

Chances are, if you loved Love Story, you'll be extremely disappointed in Oliver's Story. The cast tries their best but they cannot overcome the awful script and the flat direction.

I'm a huge fan of love story and I only found out that there is a sequel last week. So I have ordered Oliver's story dvd and watched it. I was so curious at the end of love story to know what happened to Oliver since the departure of Jenny, so I was so excited to watch the sequel. The beginning (funeral part) was amazing, But the rest of the film was not really the best as Oliver seems lost and confused. The best thing was that finally he reconciliate with his father and started to run the family business, I also enjoyed the end as I felt it was an open end which I was so pleased with as I can't imagine oliver being with someone else apart from Jenny. Overall it's a good film not the best, maybe it could of been better if they used old footage of Jenny and Oliver together.

Love may mean never having to say you're sorry, but death means not having to be in the sequel to Love Story. In this one, Ryan O'Neal has to struggle with being a rich, idealistic attorney in an affair with fabulously wealthy Candace Bergen who treats him to a trip to Hong Kong.

Life is not what it should be, however, since rich father Ray Milland wants him to take over the family business and Candace Bergen actually thinks that her job running Bonwit Teller is more important than paying constant attention to O'Neal.

Oliver Barrett, a young widower-lawyer in New York City, is morose at singles bars, a dud on fix-up dates and misty-eyed on the analyst's couch; while visiting an old haunt, he meets a beautiful woman jogging who sasses him and challenges him to a game of tennis ("Bring your ass," she tells him, "so I can whip it!"--to which Oliver replies, "Well, I guess you'll bring the balls!"). Erich Segal co-adapted his novel, a sequel to 1970's hugely popular "Love Story", but quickly found that his audience had moved on. Ryan O'Neal returns as Oliver, and Ray Milland is back as Barrett's stern father, but what's the point beyond the hazards of trying to replace a deceased love with a replica? One can sense right away that Segal is trying to resurrect the past, not just follow it up; he has the audacity to begin the film with Jenny's funeral (the mourners sniffling, the casket being lowered into the ground, etc.) while Francis Lai's 1970 love theme rises up in the background. We're just passed the opening credits and the picture is already putting the squeeze on us. Jump ahead 18 months and Oliver, waking up to Jenny's picture on the end table, is being told to get on with it (his father-in-law tells him, "If it had been you who died and not Jenny...well, she wasn't the type to enter a nunnery."). It's all very polished and smooth and banal, with Candice Bergen the all-knowing new girlfriend: too smart, too pert, too sensitive. *1/2 from ****