Head Over Heels

1979
PG
1h 35m

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

1.9K

YOUR RATING

Working for the Utah state government as a report writer, Charles Richardson reminisces about his past love affair with Laura Connolly, with who he was immediately attracted upon first sight when she worked in the file section of his office. Their relationship was despite Laura then being married to ex-football player Jim, nicknamed Ox, he bringing an adolescent daughter, Rebecca, into their blended family. When she and Charlie met, Laura was already on a trial separation from Ox, which always tainted Laura and Charlie's relationship in her sense of guilt as Ox never did anything bad to precipitate that separation. Charlie can't help but think about Laura as he is still in love with her and wants to get back together with her, their relationship which ended when she returned to Ox, who never knew about Charlie in her life. Charlie's thoughts about Laura are only one complication in his life, those other complicating people being: his perpetually "half glass full sister" Susan, who shares the house he inherited from their grandmother; his longtime best friend Sam Maguire, a men's garments salesman who is even less motivated with work than Charlie; his mother Clara, whose eccentricities and suicidal tendencies may solely be a cry for attention; Clara's current husband Pete, who wants a bromance with Charlie despite knowing Charlie doesn't much like him; his boss, Mr. Patterson, who continually uses him as a guidance counselor in issues related to his teenage son; and his typist Betty, who is attracted to Charlie herself not knowing about his and Laura's past relationship, and who Charlie consciously and unconsciously uses in knowing she still is in touch with Laura.

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Romantic Comedy Comedy Drama Romance

Charles is a bored civil servant struggling through a harsh Utah winter. He spends most of his time reflecting on his romance with Laura, a coworker who left him to return to her husband, an... Read allCharles is a bored civil servant struggling through a harsh Utah winter. He spends most of his time reflecting on his romance with Laura, a coworker who left him to return to her husband, an A-Frame salesman.Charles is a bored civil servant struggling through a harsh Utah winter. He spends most of his time reflecting on his romance with Laura, a coworker who left him to return to her husband, an A-Frame salesman.

Director
- Joan Micklin Silver
Writers
- Ann Beattie
- Joan Micklin Silver
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

1.9K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Joan Micklin Silver
Writers
- Ann Beattie
- Joan Micklin Silver
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

User reviews38

Featured review

Something missing

The pivot on which this story turns is Laura's character; unfortunately, that character is drawn less thoroughly than one might wish. How are we to understand her vacillations? (We have to guess, because the picture doesn't explain them, and she herself is apparently unable to explain them.) Saying that she is confused by her choices tells us nothing worthwhile about her character. Does she - out of a sense of guilt - feel compelled to draw away whenever her lover draws nearer? An interesting enough concept, but it isn't brought out in the film, so such an interpretation is no more than speculation. If Laura's attachment to her daughter is so strong, how was she able to walk away? (There is, by the way, little in the film itself to suggest that the two were especially close.) As for the men in her life: her husband seems no better or worse than average, and her lover - except for his persistence - also seems unremarkable. As for the ending: the one in the version I saw (running, running, running faster in the park) is no ending at all. It just happens to be the last scene of the picture.

jaykay-10
Oct 13, 2001
Permalink

Trivia
Ann Beattie: the author of the original novel, plays a waitress in a diner scene and was paid $26 for the non-speaking part. (A speaking part would have paid $225.)

Quotes
Blind Man: What do you want?
Charles: [laughing crazily] What do I want? I wanna marry Laura. I thought everybody knew that. I'd even settle for living with her. What do I want? Let's talk about what I have. You know what I have? I have, I have... an unemployed jacket salesman living in my spare room, I have a mother that won't get out of the bathtub, I have a sister that always wants me to be happy, I have a stepfather that wants me to take disco lessons and I have a secretary that wants me to throw parties so that she can make dips. And I have this boss that wants *me* to give his son advice on his sexual problems!
Blind Man: You've been up all night. That only makes things look worse.
Charles: Yeah? I really thought I was having a nervous breakdown for a second there.
Blind Man: [sympathetically] Oh, sure!

Alternate versions
Head over Heels was released in 1979 and flopped as a mainstream release. After it flopped, the producers took the film, reedited it, added a new ending that was faithful to the original novel by Ann Beattie (who appears as a waitress at the beginning of the film), and released the new version as Chilly Scenes of Winter (the same title as the original novel) in 1980 in film houses.