Compromising Positions

. . .but anyone else should like it,too. I saw it for the first time in the theater when I was 19. It was the first movie I went to alone because none of my friends wanted to see a "girl's movie". It is that, but it's a wonderful one of those. Since then I've seen it a dozen times and it always makes me laugh.

Susan is wonderful as always and Raul Julia is solid, but Judith Ivy steals every scene she's in. Some of the other characters are excentric to distraction, but over all it's very entertaining. It's the kind of comedy that's amusing even if it's not laugh-out-loud funny all the time. Now it's a little dated, but still really fun to watch.

Frank Perry, a middling director I know best for DAVID AND LISA, MOMMIE DEAREST, comes up with a far more comic product in COMPROMISING POSITIONS. A generally humorous screenplay by Susan Isaacs helps, especially with with some clever twists and the relationship between Julia and Sarandon; cinematography is competent enough, with some interesting angle shots in the tooth extraction room at the start; and some telling closeups of Susan Sarandon, whose eye-rolling greatly contributes to the film's offbeat oddball atmosphere. The church scene where many woman cry over the romeo dentist's passing is memorable.

Sarandon dominates the film - she is a real pleasure to watch - and Raul Julia, Joe Mantegna, Judith Ivey and Josh Mostel provide more than adequate support.

No masterpiece, but completely enjoyable until the final quarter, at which point it becomes rather bland. The scene where a cop car drives up and the cop distracts the baddie is just too pat and (in my opinion) does not fit in with the rest of the movie, but that scene is not enough to condemn the film. 7/10.

Susan sarandon, who started out in the soap operas and was janet in "rocky horror"! When someone gets moidid in a small town, the whole neighborhood is talking about it. Apparently the victim was quite the ladies man, and was always on the make. So housewife and mom judith decides to try to figure out who-dunnit. But now she's a suspect herself! It's okay. Major over-acting by julia and herrmann. A bit slow in the middle. Some familiar faces... joe montegna, judith ivey, anne desalvo, ed herrmann, raul julia. Story based on the novel by susan isaacs. She also wrote "hello again", about the death of a spouse. And that also starred judith ivey, and it also had director frank perry! Perry was nominated for "david and lisa"... has anyone ever heard of that one? He also directed mommied dearest. Raul julia died young at 54.

I liked the movie but not Edward Herman's chauvinistic role. What I really didn't like is Raul Julia aka Sgt Suarez constantly hitting on Susan Sarandon when he knew full well she was married, not to mention it was unprofessional. It just didn't make any sense or add to the plot since there was no way she would leave her husband even if he was a jerk.

It would have been better if Edward Hermann was in cahoots with the dentist Joe Montegna where he killed Montegna for whatever reason. Then her husband would go to jail and she could have an excuse to be with Suarez.

Nevertheless I loved her neighbor played by Judith Ivey. She stole every scene she was in.

This is one of the biggest surprises to come out of the 80's. I could watch it over and over....Susan Sarandon is great (a strong and dynamic woman trapped in a dull marriage to a total jerk) - Edward Herrman plays the perfect total jerk. Judith Singer's relationship with the lieutenant played by the wonderful late Raul Julia is beautifully played out. The funniest of all is Judith Ivey with her unbelievable delivery (especially the line about the cole slaw). The tongue in cheek parody of an annoyingly incestuous suburban community is handled with subtle humor and total class. I really recommend this movie!

BTW, Compromising Positions is based on the novel by Susan Isaacs; if you love the movie you will adore the book as well.