Dreary Bleary
Two life-long friends approaching 60 (Gena Rowlands, Linda Lavin) face some harsh realities about their lives and their friendship after their husbands die.
Silly and unrealistic from the get-go. Rowlands is a rich woman in Houston who's life is taken up by the social whirl (a Zoo Ball? Really?) while Lavin is the down-home type living in rural South Carolina. Their husbands die within a week or so of each other, so they reach out to each other for comfort.
While they were friends "at school," their adult lives have been mostly separate and they have just about nothing in common as old women yet believe they are best friends. Each one gripes endlessly about lousy marriages, bad sex, loneliness, etc. But neither one ever did a thing to remedy their situation.
Their lives diverge even more when Rowlands becomes ill and Lavin finds herself a man (the ancient Richard Farnsworth). While Rowlands' life sinks as her daughter (Helen Slater) reveals she never liked her, Lavin's sparks upward with her lover and a ridiculous wallpaper business she goes into with her maid (Ja'net DuBois). Really?
Also involved in this silliness is Gwen Verdon, briefly seen as Lavin's globe-trotting mother and Burke Moses, as the younger financial advisor Rowlands tries to ensnare in a relationship. His dismissal of her advances is the only flicker of reality in this sticky goopy mess.
The worst moment is at the Zoo Ball when Rowlands discovers hubby was having an affair with a fellow socialite (Karen Austin) and she hunts her down in the toilet with her brainless friends in tow. They all brandish guns (really?) and then run away screaming when one goes off accidentally. Dreary and Bleary.
Silly and unrealistic from the get-go. Rowlands is a rich woman in Houston who's life is taken up by the social whirl (a Zoo Ball? Really?) while Lavin is the down-home type living in rural South Carolina. Their husbands die within a week or so of each other, so they reach out to each other for comfort.
While they were friends "at school," their adult lives have been mostly separate and they have just about nothing in common as old women yet believe they are best friends. Each one gripes endlessly about lousy marriages, bad sex, loneliness, etc. But neither one ever did a thing to remedy their situation.
Their lives diverge even more when Rowlands becomes ill and Lavin finds herself a man (the ancient Richard Farnsworth). While Rowlands' life sinks as her daughter (Helen Slater) reveals she never liked her, Lavin's sparks upward with her lover and a ridiculous wallpaper business she goes into with her maid (Ja'net DuBois). Really?
Also involved in this silliness is Gwen Verdon, briefly seen as Lavin's globe-trotting mother and Burke Moses, as the younger financial advisor Rowlands tries to ensnare in a relationship. His dismissal of her advances is the only flicker of reality in this sticky goopy mess.
The worst moment is at the Zoo Ball when Rowlands discovers hubby was having an affair with a fellow socialite (Karen Austin) and she hunts her down in the toilet with her brainless friends in tow. They all brandish guns (really?) and then run away screaming when one goes off accidentally. Dreary and Bleary.
- drednm
- Aug 11, 2021