The Portrait

The actors, directors, and camera people did a nice job making this movie, the story was very loose. I was an extra in this movie and can attest that Gregory Peck was a great person in addition to his incredible acting talent. Director Penn got a lot out of the story and worked very hard. True story, shooting on Duke campus had to be suspended for thirty minutes for the bells in Duke Chapel. It was an exasperating day of shooting and Penn's facial expressions and comments when told it was an unavoidable break were priceless. It is well acted and a good Sunday afternoon over a cold glass of sweetened ice tea kind of movie.

Not much action and even less of a plot, but The Portrait is a good character study of two elderly parents and their relationship with their daughter brought by two Hollywood icons and the daughter of one of them. And no this is not On Golden Pond redux.

Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall who teamed in 1957 for Designing Women co-star again in a very good made for television film in which the comparisons between it and On Golden Pond are startling. Both the leading men have backgrounds in academia, the daughter of the male lead plays the daughter in the film. Both concern the daughter's relationship with her parents. Both deal with the problems of old age, especially the husband who seems to be getting much more frail than the wife and developing Alzheimer's Disease.

Cecilia Peck plays their daughter who seems to have been an odd child out when she was growing up. Gregory Peck was a noted literary figure, a professor of English and Poet Laureate. Bacall was his student teaching assistant back in the day as we find out when two of the old hens who knew them when are gossiping at a faculty lunch.

Cecilia seems to have finally made it as an artist and she's anxious to have Mom and Dad at her first big gallery showing. But they're wrapped up in a big move they've not told her about. The old family homestead is being sold because it's too much to manage for the elderly parents.

But also there are the health issues. When Greg goes out and doesn't return of course Cecilia and Lauren go into panic mode. They do find him unconscious, no heart attack or stroke, but extremely dehydrated which can sneak up on you on a hot summer day.

The film is a bit slow, but the character studies run deep. And of course you can't go wrong with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall at the top of the billing. Other than Cecilia's character, there are no secondary characters developed. But seeing the two icons is more than enough reason to view this well crafted story of old age.

I found this movie silly and the characters were vapid. Peck and Bacall played overdone and over animated old people, and frankly, the acting reminded of a school play. We watched this because we had seen it being filmed in Raleigh and were never able to find it before. If you love either or both of these 2 actors, be kind to yourself - and their memories -and pass on it.

New York artist Margaret Church (Cecilia Peck) is working on her first solo show. She goes home to her parents, Gardner Church (Gregory Peck) and Fanny Church (Lauren Bacall). She wants to paint their portrait. Unbeknownst to her, they have sold the family home and is in the process of moving out.

This is a TV movie on TNT. I am sure that everybody was happy to just see the veteran actors doing the work. Both legendary actors still have it. The real life daughter has less of it. While some haters may want to play the nepo card, I would point more at the writing. The story needs something to drive it. Instead, it is just a bunch of stuff happening. His big speech should be the big climax. The portrait is just the title. I find this boring despite the two screen legends.

They are all three excellent, not just Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck, but also Cecilia Peck as their daughter, an artist, who goes out to visit them to finish a portrait of them which evidently already once had been difficult to complete, the difficulty of which you understand as they pose for her and make themselves thoroughly impossible. But she needs the portrait for her exhibition, she will not have the gallery without it, so she simply has to bear with them and, like in all families, encounter all kinds of personal crises, especiially as the old couple are on the verge to dementia. But it is beautifully made, the sensitivity all through is genuine, the character play is marvellous, and there will even be a reward in the end. This film is not to be missed by all those who have enjoyed various films with Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck since the golden 40s to find them still going strong at 69 and 76.