Atos de Amor

A well-written story peopled with memorable characters. A bit off-putting, though, in its use of full frontal nudity....rather than displaying passion, Dennis Hopper and Amy Irving just looked plain cold.

And I do find it a bit of a male conceit to have a sexy nymphette of the caliber of Amy Locane be sexually aroused by a 49 yr. old (60 in real life) physically handicapped country schoolteacher who still lives on the farm with his mother. Perhaps she might have wiled away her Tuesday afternoons with him in the barn.....while she planned her weekend escapades with someone more suitable. As a woman, I found myself wishing Amy Irving would find herself a 17 yr. old stud to carry HER away....now THAT might be reason for some frontal nudity. But this film really is quite good....I'm just not sure women will like it nearly as much as the fellas.

I'm a big fan of Dennis Hopper - and this is one of his best works. I'm not sure if he came to the script or if this was just the perfect vehicle for his ability to play complexity - but such doesn't really matter.

Busey was excellent when he's usually too much. Hal Holbrook was solid.

The story was one that middle-aged men are frequently (more often than we may expect) confronted with. This was the most unsensational, honest, and thoughtful presentation of the conflict I've ever watched. Great flick for the thoughtful.

There was a very sexual content - but never was it gratuitous. Every scene had a purpose. It was a rare film in that if you wanted to be entertained, it did that. If you wanted to provoke thought, it did that, too. How involved do you want to be?

If you enjoy movies that leave you taking more than one position, and arguing with yourself about what is "right" this is the kind of flick you'd enjoy.

It's been interesting to watch Dennis Hopper grow up in films, from the skinny, scared kid in "The Sons of Katie Elder", to his iconic role as Billy in "Easy Rider", to the whacked-out journalist in "Apocalypse Now", to this thoroughly middle-aged character. Here, he is the ultimate grown-up, at least at first, who feels the need to go back to years past in the idea of love/sex with the young student. He nailed his part. Amy Irving nailed hers, too, though it was a bit of a smaller part. Amy Locane provided the eye candy, for us as well as for Joseph Svenden (Hopper). Harder to understand her character's (Catherine) motivations. I can see that the pickings were pretty slim in that time and place, but the 47-year-old semi-crippled more-or-less engaged teacher? This film is worth seeing, if you can take some fairly unsettling images (Hopper naked). Grade: B

One of the worst movies I have ever seen. If it had a few musical numbers, it would beat out Ishtar for worst movie of all time. Ed Wood is smiling somewhere.

This film is NOT a convincing character study, the premise that a 49 year old with arrested development issues is going to have a revitalizing affair with the local sex kitten (who initiates it!!) seems more implausible than the plots of most action films. At least the action films supply devices which we can use to suspend our disbelief. A 17-year old with a penchant for handicapped men still living with their mothers is beyond my ken.

At least I got a laugh out of this movie, Amy Locane's immolation of the horse (a ruse to get Hopper to act as a hero and save it, but his gimpy leg precludes such a possibility) is forever etched in my mind.

This is a beautiful and rare look at rural America in the 1960s. Dennis Hopper plays a schoolteacher with a gimpy leg who is quite unexceptional. He's middle-aged but still only engaged (to Amy Irving who is fantastic in this!)and still lives with his aged mother (the wonderful Julie Harris). Suddenly, a young, fresh, beautiful and vibrant teenager arrives at his school and he finds his heart - and other vital organs - stirred beyond endurance. She's technically not innocent (she's not a virgin) but she's no Lolita either. She's the epitome of the young women of Andrew Wyeth's paintings. In fact, the whole film looks and feels like a Wyeth painting: organic and idyllic with an emptiness that's filed with loneliness. The script is intelligent and original, allowing each character to be fully developed, and Dennis Hopper gives the performance of his career.

I've read a few reviews here and elsewhere that complain about Hopper's age and the frontal nudity. I belong to the school of thought that nothing natural is ugly, and that art should not ALWAYS be pure and youthful and beatific (which BTW, was what Hitler's vision was. Art that wasn't beautiful was classified as "degenerate" and banned). If there's room for artists like Michelangeo and Egon Schiele in this world, and there's surely room for Brad Pitt AND Dennis Hopper!

If the nude body is something that you just can't look at then a film like this may not be for you (there's only one very brief scene). But keep in mind that you can't broaden your vision of humanity if you don't have an open mind and are willing to look below the superficial surface that at least in Hollywood, poses as reality.