Too Far to Go

My review was written in April 1982 after a Manhattan UES screening during theatrical release: Produced for and originally broadcast in 1979 over network television, "Too Far to Go" is an affecting feature film dealing with marital breakup. Sharp-focus lensing in 35mm makes its theatrical release laudable, with Francis Coppola's Zoetrope banner likely to muster a specialized audience in class sites.

Scripted by William Hanley from stories by John Updike, pic utilizes witty, arch dialog in limning the separation and divorce of New England couple Richard and Joan Maple (Michael Moriarty and Blythe Danner). Flashbacks concisely detail happier times for the duo, with sexual matters ranging from infidelity to cessation of marital relations for several years handled frankly but tastefully (by current screen standards).

Using well-framed closeups (designed for small screen medium but powerful in the theatrical mode) and suppressing master shots, helmer Fielder Cook handles the material with solid surprise effects, for example, a spooky moment when a lover's hand enters the frame to reveal Joan's adjustment just after Richard phones her.

Lead thesps shine, particularly Blythe Danner as the stronger of the couple. She is radiant in 20-years-ago flashbacks and a fiery adversary in the modern scenes. Cast as somewhat stuffy and week, Michael Moriarty is generally impressive within the limitations of a forced accent.

Outstanding in brief support are Josef Sommer as Richard's accountant, laying down the law on alimony to last "forever". Kathryn Walker as a chatty, family friend providing Richard with some loving during a rainstorm, Doran Clark as the eldest daughter -a beautiful, very natural actress, and Thomas HIll, quite funny in a bit as Joan's psychiatrist.

Economical use of locations fleshes out this intimate study, photographed by Oscar-winner Walter Lassally in a handsome, mainly realistic (stressing source lighting) mode. Other credits are fine. Prior television exposure obviously cuts into the audience for "Too Far to Go", but as with any good picture, there's life beyond the tube for this property and a treat for fans who still prefer large-screen 35mm visual presentations.

In the 1990's, I took a screenwriting class at San Francisco State University from Fielder Cook. One of the movies Fielder screened for us was Too Far to Go, one of his own films that he was quite proud of. Too Far to Go is an unusual film inasmuch as it tells its story in reverse; the movie begins with a couple's unhappy divorce, and works its way slowly backwards in time to their optimistic wedding ceremony many years earlier. What is interesting about this movie is not the divorce itself -- which is literally the opening scene -- but the character story that unfolds as we gradually move backwards in time and learn more about the couple. We also get to see the effect that our foreknowledge of the eventual outcome has on our perception of the events we witness while various mistakes and betrayals evaporate as the characters move backwards in time. It's a fascinating conceit for a film, and one well worth watching at least once.

Fielder Cook said one thing about screenwriting that I will always remember: "There is nothing more boring than a character SAYING that they're going to do something, and then just DOING that something." Fielder taught us that the interest in a story, the thing that grabs the audience's curiosity and invests them in the characters, is when a character SAYS that they're going to do something, but then ends up doing something else instead. WHY are they doing this unintended thing? The reasons WHY they end up doing this unintended thing end up revealing much more about the character and make the story more interesting than just having someone do exactly what they say that they're going to do at the outset. The reason why I mention this is because Too Far to Go was one of the main films that Fielder used to illustrate this approach to screenwriting. The story of this film is the literal embodiment of the concept... after all, most people do not intend to divorce when they get married.

My personal feeling at the time was that Fielder occasionally took his maxim a little too much to heart, and ended up making his films overly complicated as a result. Occasionally, a character needs to do something boringly straightforward to keep a story from snowballing out of control. But the essential principle is spot on. When it comes to the main events of your story, there is nothing more boring than a character saying that they're going to do something, and then just doing it; that's a missed opportunity for character development as well as a missed opportunity to grab the audience's curiosity with your character story. Modern screenplays would be greatly improved if their writers followed Fielder Cook's advice.

My memory is not great, so I recall very little about the details of this film except that I thought Blythe Danner gave one of her best performances in it. I was not a fan of Michael Moriarty at the time, but I thought that he gave a much better performance than usual too. The screenplay certainly gave the actors a lot of good material!

This is not a feel good film; if you want escapism, look elsewhere. But if you want to watch a fascinating character study from a master in the art, this film will teach you a lot. I don't think Fielder was extraordinarily wise about what made people tick (particularly women), but he certainly knew how to tell a story in an interesting way!

Based on a series of John Updike stores, which were published in the New Yorker magazine over a period of twenty years, "Too Far To Go," is one of the most incisive, and emotionally honest depictions of both the joys and sadness of marriage ever put on film. Updike's stories of upper middle class WASP characters are justly considered among the best short stories written by an American post World War II, through some readers (and some viewers, in the case of this film) may be less able to achieve empathy with such characters, with their highly paid jobs, and their secure life style, in which prep school and Ivy league educations are the norm. But Updike's themes (at least in the short stories) are universal. In "Too Far To Go," one of the rare TV movies which later received theatrical release, Michael Moriarity and Blythe Danner portray Richard and Joan Maple, from the idealistic beginning of their marriage in the late fifties, to the disintagration of it in the late seventies, under the weight of mulitple affairs by each, and the attendant deceit and resentment these affairs cause. It's a measure of Updike's skill as a writer that he is able to make characters who betray each other, and their own principles, sympathetic. It's as if he's pointing out that we start with the best intentions, but, through our inability to trust, or know another's heart, we poison and destroy that which we hold most dear. One of the stories' and this film's points departures from the conventional treatment of such issues is that, through all their fights and casual cruelty to each other, Richard and Joan still love each other, even at the final scene in the courtroom in which their divorce ritual mirrors their marriage ceremony, twenty years before. Moriarity and Danner are both excellent. Those familiar with Moriarty only through his TV work on "Law and Order," and his later supporting roles in theatrical films, might be surprised by the depth and quality of his performance here. But, in the seventies, Moriarity was considered an up and coming, serious actor, as his performance here and in "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1973) attest. Blythe Danner, Gwyneth Paltrow's mother, gave fine performances in films as diverse as "The Great Santini," and "Hearts of the West," but her performance here, as Joan Maple, may be her best on film. As Janet Maslin said when "Too Far to Go," was released into the theaters after being shown on TV, "We can now go the movies and see this remarkable Drama. " And, as Washington Post TV critic, Tom Shales, wrote at the time, "This is a production for which no award would be good enough." Do yourself a favor, and search out this fine, nearly forgotten film. I found a copy of it recently in a bin of three for ten dollar VHS tapes. Rent it or buy it, if you are a fan of fine drama, you will not be disappointed.