User reviews

Gene Hackman plays a guy in midlife crisis: he's been married to boring Ellen Burstyn for like, forever, and he's just met hottie Ann-Margret in the local bar he frequents. What's a man to do?

This thin Colin Welland script (British screenwriter of the overrated CHARIOTS OF FIRE) is enlivened considerably by Hackman's convincing portrayal of a blue-collar Everyman who's mortgaged his life for work and family to the exclusion of any dreams for himself. The decidedly unmelodramatic arc of his life change and its consequences is relatively rare in American films and is more interesting for it. Look for newcomer Amy Madigan lighting up the screen as Hackman's PO'd but devoted daughter. A wistful Pat Metheny score and Nick McLean's cinematography of unglamorous Seattle locations -- back before it became America's trendiest city -- enhance the authentic feel. Bud Yorkin, Norman Lear's former producing partner, directs to good low-key effect. Worth a look for Hackman/Burstyn/Margret fans.

I came home from work one day in Seattle to see Ann Margaret and Gene Hackman sitting on the steps of the apartment building next to my newer one. It was the set for Gene's crappy apt in the movie. I rushed upstairs and got a whte Tee and marker hnd got both to sign it. They could not have been any nicer. Most people were kept well back but since I lived there they had to let me through. I so hoped the movie was going to be a great movie but alas no. All the actors are at the very top of their games and if not for that this movie would have never been released as it isnt that good. I did appreciate that they tried to show a modern (at the time) divorce where daddy DIDNT come home and Mommy and daddy didnt become best friends. Ann was gorgeous and does some fine acting but Hackman and Burstyn are amazing. They both live their parts of a once happy marriage that has petrified and already dead. Ms Burstyn's portrayal of a woman who is afraid to live finally opening herself to a different life is truely beautiful. The script is just too thin with too many shortcuts where there should be none.

It's as if scenarist Colin Welland realized, about halfway through writing this rather standard account of a husband and wife breaking up and then readjusting to their new lives, that he didn't have much of a story going on and went "Blimey! Better start padding things out". How else to account for the none too interesting forays into the lives of the couple's two daughters and their spouses? To mention nothing of lots of picture postcards of Seattle on rare sunny days. (Wonder how long the shooting sched had to be to dodge this gloomy burg's pervasive rain and overcast?) That the viewer sticks with it (well, this viewer) without putting a dent in the fast forward is mostly due to the plethora of fine acting by Hackman, Burstyn, Margret, Madigan, Sheedy, Lang and Dennehy. And when the acting is all first rate, even when delivered by the above pros, the director, in this case TV vet Bud Yorkin, must be given some recognition even though Yorkin's visual sense is strictly small screen, and thus totally at the service of Welland.

Harry MacKenzie (Gene Hackman) leaves wife Kate (Ellen Burstyn) for waitress Audrey Minelli (Ann-Margret). This causes huge complications with his adult children Sunny (Amy Madigan) and Helen (Ally Sheedy). Stephen Lang and Brian Dennehy throw in strong supporting performances.

This is well made and everything...but this has been done to death before and this adds nothing new. Aside from some swearing (the R rating for this is not deserved) this plays like a made for TV movie. I knew what was coming constantly all through the movie and quickly tired of it. It doesn't even have a conclusion! It just sort of stops. (One of my friends said, "I can't say if I like it or not until I see the end!") All the acting was great--especially Burstyn, Ann-Margret and Madigan (she was Oscar nominated for this one) but all the great acting in the world can't overcome the predictable storyline. If you're a sucker for Lifetime movies or predictable family dramas this is right up your alley. This came and went quickly in 1985 and is now (rightfully) forgotten. I believe Ann-Margret was asked about this a few years back in an interview and she couldn't remember doing it! That should tell you something. I give it a 6.

Twice in a Lifetime is about love: family love, romantic love, sibling love, love between two old friends. It has an all star cast who are unfortunately too big for the script which seems to have been written for television.

Gene Hackman is Harry MacKenzie, a man who married very young and took a job in the local steel mill which pays well but is a place where dreams go to die, at least for some. The movie opens on the occasion of Harry's 50th birthday where his adult daughters, their significant others and grandchildren are having a celebratory dinner in his honor. Its a small, working class home filled with love but has probably seen better days.

Ellen Burstyn is his wife Kate, a plain but hard working woman, who's devoted her life to her family. There's a moment where she gives Harry a kiss on the forehead at the birthday dinner and he brushes it away. It gives us the first indication that things are not as they seem.

Kate tells Harry at the birthday dinner to go meet the guys at the pub down the street for a few beers. He goes alone wearing a bow tie and dress shirt and meets his best friend, Nick (played by Brian Dennehy) where a group of friends are waiting for him. Its there he meets middle aged sexpot, Audrey, (played by Ann Margret), recently widowed and working her 1st day on the job at as a barmaid. They quickly begin an affair.

Harry realizes how unfulfilled he's been in his marriage to Kate for a long time. He's asks for a divorce and the rest of the movie is how she and his other family members deal with this life changing event.

I could really see this being a 90 minute TV pilot with Dick Van Dyke as Harry having a mid life crisis, later being developed into a weekly series in the Eight is Enough vein. Yet somehow you end up routing for everybody, with the exception of Amy Madigan who is really annoying despite having gotten an academy award nomination for the role. Burstyn plays the role of Kate with just right balance of emotional pain and spiritual growth. Hackman portrays Harry as sympathetic and relatable despite being a cad for leaving his wife after 30 years. I should hate the guy, but I ended up routing for him and Audrey.

Overall, its a bittersweet little family movie about the death of a long marriage. The characters come away changed but ultimately find a way to carry on and keep the family love going. Too much padding in certain areas and not enough character development but worth seeing.

At the beginning of "Twice in a Lifetime", when the McKenzie family is sitting around the dining room table celebrating, Ellen Burstyn gives long-time husband Gene Hackman a kiss, but nobody notices how he recoils a bit from her affection or how shaky his smile appears. Here is a well-made dramatic piece for a group of terrific actors, asking us to look at all sides of a divorce, offering only a few pat answers but mostly moving sequences. Hackman quickly falls into a loving relationship--which can be seen as possibly too convenient--but the woman in question is Ann-Margret at her most vivacious, so we can forgive the formula. Burstyn's character goes through the standard changes of the jilted wife, yet the talents of this wonderful actress helps transcend the clichés of such a role (she even gives it subtext and meaning; a movie about her character alone would be worth-watching). Amy Madigan's angry daughter is an overwrought creation, a one-note role, and the way she's written and directed we don't see any nuances--just her irritation. Still, many fine ingredients are included here, and the supporting players are wonderful (particularly Brian Dennehy, always good, and Ally Sheedy). Alternately tough and tender, the emotions played out at the finale are concrete--they make sense--giving this film the edge over similar pictures such as "Smash Palace" and "Shoot The Moon". *** from ****

On his 50th birthday, a Seattle factor worker meets an attractive bar maid and falls in lust with her, leaving his family for her. The acting is excellent, particularly Hackman as the man having a middle-age crisis, Burstyn as his devoted wife, and Madigan as their angry daughter. Unfortunately, the film feels stale, a tiresome rehash of a theme that has been covered too often. With a clichéd script and plodding direction, it feels like a TV movie. The first half is particularly bad, as it tries too hard to establish Hackman as a good guy in a dead-end marriage. It gets better after that, but is ultimately less than satisfying.

Seriously ... and thankfully they are not. Maybe some of us know a guy like Harry, a regular schmo with an attentive if somewhat mousy and tired wife, nice kinds, grandkids and no mortgage. One day he spies Ann-Margaret, incongruously cast as a lightly used (no previous owner/demonstrator model) and completely unattached barmaid in her first day on the job at Harry's corner bar, just ready to give him an extended, great big wet kiss, because, you know, it's his birthday and also because there has to be an extramarital affair to set this film in motion. The mutual attraction is facile and convenient, and the film does move from one predictable plot point to another: distraught wife, angry daughter, another daughter making a life-changing decision, etc. It's all life-changing but without resolution or any real change: life goes on and perhaps that is the one nod to reality.

As others note this is Lifetime Channel-- (does that still exist?) or Hallmark (maybe sad Hallmark) Channel--level film making, from a TV pro. The cast is first-rate but it's such a predictable and formulaic script, there's really no need to check the spoiler button. This one can't break the five-star threshold to significance.

After 30 years of only reading about this movie, I finally watched this with my mom on Netflix disc. Gene Hackman plays a middle-aged man who feels his life is just routine. When he celebrates his 50th birthday, he does so at a bar without his family members-they had done so earlier-and meets Ann-Margret-a new barmaid there. Their affair is eventually revealed by someone who knows both. His wife-Ellen Burstyn-doesn't take it well, of course, but it's one of his daughters-Amy Madigan-who really flies off the handle when she finds out. I'll stop there and just say there's no false note here, it's portrayed quite honestly mostly from beginning to end. Ally Sheedy and Brian Dennehy round out the fine cast with good help from producer-director Bud Yorkin. This was a mostly fine drama. So on that note, Mom and me highly recommend Twice in a Lifetime. P.S. This review is dedicated in memory of Yorkin. Also, this was shot in Seattle where one of my sisters currently lives with her family.

I remember seeing Twice In A Lifetime back in 1985 during it's theatrical run ,I enjoyed the movie but did not really analyze it .

I recently got a chance to rewatch it and really noticed how bad the screenplay was especially for Ellen Burstyn's character.

Her role of the wife Kate McKenzie is so badly underwritten , in one scene Gene Hackman's character Harry McKenzie is telling her why he is leaving her for another woman , it's so painful not because of just him dumping on her but because he feels that this other woman can give him a fresh start since he feels that Kate treats him like wallpaper. I mean in the beginning scenes of the movie you know they are not in a good marriage but she never treats him like that and actually tries to reach out to him. It's a shame that her character was not fleshed out more , all we get is a few scenes of a tired woman who probably hasn't been treated fairly and is driven down by her neglectful husband.

The impression that I got was that Harry had driven his wife down so far , that she basically stopped trying to make her appearance any better, I mean warranted Kate was not a pretty woman but she didn't bother to wear make up or better clothes. She was portrayed very drab and seemed to care more about the kids and game shows. So Harry selfishly goes to a bar and flirts with barmaid Audrey played by Ann Margret who in my opinion drags this movie down with her gross come ons and wooden empathy . In one scene she practically attacks Harry in bed , panting like a dog in heat . Yuck. Their whole dynamic just doesn't work, I just find it very unrealistic that a man like Harry would turn any woman on with his looks and behavior.

Harry also tells Kate in the scene where he is leaving ,that Audrey is not younger than she is but in reality Ann Margret was 9 years younger than Ellen Burstyn ,44 compared to 53 is a big gap for a woman. That and the fact they have Ann Margret all dolled up compared to Ellen Burstyns old maid drabness, she finally has a beauty makeover during the last 3rd of the movie but lets be honest, even in full makeup and a blond dye job ,Ellen Burstyn is no match for Ann Margret in the looks dept.

The saving grace to the movie are the roles of Harry's 2 daughters played by Amy Madigan and Ally Sheedy. Sunny played by Madigan is this headstrong tough woman who thinks that marriage should last forever no matter what and really lays into her father about his infidelity while Helen played by Sheedy is more kind hearted and is about to get married - the scene with her dad on the porch at night is the best in the movie. Overall I rate it 6/10 because the talented cast gets wasted in a bad screenplay that basically tells the story of a philanderer who justifies his behavior just because he can and also doesn't care about his family's feelings ,blaming it on his wife more than himself ,if anything he and Audrey will end up splitting once he gets tired of her in 5 years.

Where in the world do people celebrate birthdays - 50th or otherwise - like they do down at Mo's Tavern. Hackman walks in and the place goes nuts as if all the barflies were just waiting for him to walk in. And then they stop the dancing so his buddy can give him a Seahawks jacket to the wild applause of the other patrons, followed by a big smooch from Ann-Margret working her first night at the bar.

Not a believable moment in that entire scene.

The home scenes are much more believable, with Ellen Burstyn showing a quiet dignity as the shop-worn wife. And to be fair during the quiet scenes, Hackman and Ann-Margret do very well together. For my money, Hackman can do no wrong as an actor.

The story doesn't really break any new ground, unfortunately. More like a Middle-Age Crisis Movie of the Week.

Nevertheless I want to get on record that if Ellen Burstyn were my wife, there's no way I'd be wandering off with a barmaid, regardless of whether that barmaid is Ann-Margret. It made me lose sympathy for Hackman. There, I said it.

"Twice in a Lifetime" is one of only two films I have ever seen that is successful in showing lead characters who are both likable and unlikeable at different points in the movie...that is, showing the full range of what makes us "human." The other movie, by the way, was "Shoot the Moon," and I was surprised to see that someone else on this board also found similarities between the two.

I see some thought that Amy Madigan's "Sunny" character was too over-the-top, but I found her riveting and compelling. Others obviously did too, as I believe she was the most nominated actor/actress from this film.

From the highest peak in Beverly Hills, this is the view downhill: joyous, simple working class folk who--yes--also sometimes have problems. While usually the purview of daytime TV, a strong cast headed by Ellen Burstyn and Gene Hackman gives the dissolution of their marriage big screen treatment. When Gene goes to the neighborhood bar for his 50th birthday celebration, he's greeted as if it's the Second Coming. The jolly community gives him just what he's always wanted: a Seattle Seahawks jacket and baseball cap, just like the real pros wear! After all, the lower orders are like children, easily thrilled. And Lo and Behold, there's a newly hired assistant bartender and it's--it's Ann-Margaret! When she beckons to Gene to come over and give her a wet, sloppy Big Boy Birthday Kiss, she avers that it's the very best kiss she's ever had! For a woman, who's not a day over 50, that's quite a compliment! Of course, she's unattached, so Gene dumps the old bag and the drama begins. All of this is too forced, but the actors, to their credit, make the most of it.

While the story is bittersweet with a cast of talented actors who are great in their roles as a blue collar family dealing with the uncomfortable mid-life changes of the father figure who begins an extramarital relationship, what captured my eyes and heart were the nostalgic 1980s scenes around the Seattle/Puget Sound area along with the working-class style of a 1980s family.

From the Kingdome that was demolished in 2000, to a ferry ride on the Spokane ferry built in 1972 by the Todd Shipyards in Seattle, to the city skyline, to the simple street scenes, this movie offers a taste of a time gone by that no longer exists as it once did in the 1980s.

Along with the Seattle scenery is the style within the movie, from the kitchen cupboards in their home, to the dishes on the table, to the television set, to a lowkey heartfelt wedding put together by family and friends.

These are little things I remember from the 1980s and when the Puget Sound area was full of working-class families; the movie captures them beautifully in the background giving the film a touch of nostalgic realism that I appreciate as a GenXer from South Puget Sound.

When the mopey Gene Hackman reaches the point where he has to choose between two whiny, irritating women-- his wife played by Ellen Burstyn, and his mistress played by Ann-Margaret-- you'll wish he'd just dump both of them and run away.

Add to this Amy Madigan's grating, one-note, Oscar-nominated (!) performance and you have a movie you'll want to turn off halfway through. My recommendation? Do it. Turn it off. There must be an kitchen-gadget infomercial on TV or SOMETHING better to watch.

TWICE IN A LIFETIME is an emotionally-charged family drama that, despite a somewhat muddled screenplay, still works thanks to some solid gold performances. Gene Hackman plays a Seattle steelworker who loves the Seahawks and seems content with his life as he prepares for the wedding of his younger daughter (Ally Sheedy), but still feels something missing in his life. His private mid-life crises move him to leave his devoted wife (Ellen Burstyn) and begin a relationship with a local barmaid (Ann-Margret). His wife resigns herself to his decision but his elder daughter (Amy Madigan) does not and refuses to let Dad off the hook. The screenplay is safe and predictable, but what makes this film worth watching is the powerhouse performances. Hackman's quiet and powerful turn as a man dealing with being at a crossroad he doesn't know how to handle' Burstyn's beautifully-realized vulnerability as the woman who is at a loss as to what went wrong in her marriage and Madigan, in a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination, icy and gripping as the daughter who refuses to accept her parents' divorce. Watching these wonderful actors take you through the roller-coaster of emotions involved in the rending apart of a family, make this movie something very special.

In the cast list there is a Ken Clark as "the flower man". That is not the KEN CLARK that made Many Euro-Spy and Sword & Sandal movies in the 1960s. I rented the movie and can confirm that this is a grave mistake. IMDB won't correct this error.