Cordes et discordes

I really enjoyed this romantic comedy. I found it funny and kept my interest throughout. Sterling performances by Sally Field and Michael Caine. Some of the supporting cast also turned in good performances. Well worth catching on video or cable.

If you've seen Intolerable Cruelty, you've already got a pretty good idea about this movie, which achingly examines the possibility of true love triumphing over mere greed.

Sally Field is a low income artist who is just looking for a real romance, not finding much satisfaction in her relationship with Martin (Guttenburg) a self centered lawyer. What a coincidence that Shuan Stein (Caine), a wealthy writer who have written over much of his fortune to gold digging ex-lovers, should be looking for the same thing. With a few moments of good timing, the two find each other. But, Shuan Stein secretly tests his girlfriend's loyatly by hiding information about his wealth, posing instead as a poor, out-of-work writer madly in love with her. And this is where the story is enjoyable, as Sally Field and Michael Caine charm the audience as conveniently matched romantics.

But, the story becomes a drag once the movie gets into seemingly endless bickering among the characters over matters of money when Martin asks Daisy to marry him and when Daisy (as you should expect) will discover Stein's secret. At that point, everything becomes talk about money, money, money and each character (except for maybe Martin who never seems to have a clue about what's going on) doubting if true love really exists. And as a result, the sweet love story we once enjoyed among Daisy and Martin in the first half is never recovered.

As a romantic comedy, it is a tolerably sweet and funny movie, for the first half. But, I think it ran out of steam as characters never quite seem to retain or even redevelop the charm that they had in the beginning, even after they've resolved their problems.

This is a good show by Sally Field (this is just her kind of part...kind of Murphy's Romance styled) and Michael Caine as the sweet English chap. As for Steve Guttenberg, I only didn't like him because his character was such a creep.

Michael Caine stars in Surrender as a successful novelist with bad luck with women. He's been divorced and taken to the cleaners too many times, and he vows he'll never get involved again. Obviously, he does, but why does he weaken if he's so adamant? Because he's literally held at gunpoint and tied to a naked woman. The film has a bit of a bizarre sense of humor, but once you get on its wavelength, it's very funny. Obviously, that situation would never happen. But it would take something so absurd to get Michael to forget his self-imposed female ban.

Sally Field (the naked lady) has her own absurd background: she always picks the wrong guys, and her current boyfriend, Steve Guttenberg, has been kidnapped in South America. She works at a "mass landscape painting factory", which is actually really interesting. But, keep in mind, it's a bit wacky. Sally vacillates between being strong and being a total pushover, but you've got to just roll with her. Overall, it's a cute movie; and every once in a while, something will make you laugh so hard, you'll need to press pause and clutch your belly.

I'll leave you with this: Michael believes he's found "The One" - again. He balks against making Sally sign a prenuptial agreement, but his lawyer and friend Peter Boyle insists. Michael maintains they're unromantic. "So are rubbers, but they work," Peter fires back. Crude? Don't watch this movie. Hilarious? Buy a copy.

Michael Caine is always worth watching, and Sally Field is at her most attractive here, but this romantic comedy is just very mild and weightless (and I mean it in a negative way). It's occasionally enjoyable, though.

I love this movie, it's very funny and uplifting. Play it if you are in a mood you want to escape. Indeed there are some belly laughs (on my part) Both Michael and Sally do a great job, and Steve Gutenberg is hilarious as a selfish whiny guy. He snaps his fingers when he is on the phone, he wants a pen, he wants a piece of paper. In the shower, he wants to know where his towel is... Michael is a successful writer taken to the cleaners in Court by 2 ex wives, and he is really looking for a girl to love him for himself, and not know about his writing fame and fortune. 2 elevators are open for him to use, one with a stunning blonde inside, the other with an evil guy and his snarling and vicious looking dog. He ignores the blonde and steps inside joining the man with the snarling dog I really should give it a 10...Highly recommended