By Richard Winters
My Rating: 1 out of 10
4-Word Review: U.S. Senator has affair.
Joe Tynan (Alan Alda) is a senator from New York who one day hopes to run for President. He meets with elderly Senator Birney (Melvyn Douglas) urging him to throw his support for a certain Supreme Court nominee that Tynan doesn’t particularly agree with but could help him politically. Tynan then meets with Karen (Meryl Streep) who has done research on the nominee and the two begin an affair. Meanwhile at home Tynan’s wife Ellie (Barbara Harris) is studying to be a therapist while raising their two kids (Blanche Baker, Chris Arnold) mostly alone due to the challenges of her husband’s career. While the two mostly get along there are sporadic differences mainly around Ellie’s openness about having gone through therapy, which Joe fears the general public isn’t open-minded about and could potentially ruin his political chances should he decide to run for high office especially after Ellie brings the matter up during an interview with a newspaper reporter (Marian Hailey).
While Alda has had a great acting career his foray as writer/director has been less than stellar. While his comedies have had some entertaining moments with his best one being The Four Seasons, they’ve always ended up having a shallow flair and seeming like they’re saying more than they really were. Unfortunately, this film, which was his first screenplay that took him over three years to write, is probably his worst. In fact, I wished he has turned this one into a comedy like his others as it might’ve worked in a satirical vein, but having to try and take this all seriously is where it really falls flat.
Alot of the problem is that it acts like that this is some sort of ‘trenchant, searing drama’ that’s enlightening us into the dark, compromising world of politics, but it shows stuff that most people know already. The wheeling-and-dealing is quite predictable as are the moral concessions that the protagonist makes in order to get ahead. Everything gets handled in a very mechanical way where the one-dimensional characters get thrown into dilemmas that are quite manufactured.
The affair between Alda and Streep is the most annoying as it pops-up without much build-up put in simply to work off the stereotype that most rich and powerful people cheat on their wives because they can and therefore this one must go through the paces, but it’s neither shocking or riveting. It’s also hard to care about the main character when he’s so easily swayed. Had Streep been more aggressive and Alda resisted some it might’ve helped, but having Alda jump between-the-sheets with her the first chance they’re alone makes him come-off like a total lout that you want to see fail. His marriage wasn’t all that bad either and seemed genuinely good outside of a little tiff, which can happen in even the best of them, and if that was enough to make him trash his vows then he was morally bankrupt from the beginning and wasn’t ‘seduced’ like the movie makes you want to think.
Spoiler Alert!
The ending, in which Ellie finds out about the other relationship, but this somehow ‘strengthens’ their marriage and makes their bond ‘even stronger’ is complete and utter schmaltzy hogwash. It would’ve been a far better payoff had Ellie gotten on stage and announced into the microphone to the crowd at his campaign rally about what a two-timing jerk he was and thus ruined his career, which I think most viewers would’ve liked to see and given this otherwise benign, trite thing a little edge, which it woefully lacks otherwise.
End of Spoiler Alert!
The performances are pretty good though the usually reliable Streep, who admitted in later interviews that she was on ‘automatic pilot’ while doing it due to the recent death of her fiancé John Cazale, isn’t as effective as she can be and I didn’t care for her southern accent. I did though really enjoy Blanche Baker, the daughter of actress Carroll Baker, who has some strong moments as Alda’s troubled daughter. Harris too is excellent, this marked her last major film role as she decided to enjoyed stage work better, who gives a compelling performance playing for a change a normal person instead of an eccentric, kooky one like she did in most of her other roles. She also ironically has an extended scene with her driving around in a station wagon, which looked quite similar to the station wagon that another character she played in The North Avenue Irregulars drove, which came out the same year as this one.
Rip Torn is also quite engaging where he cooks a spicy southern dish and then challenges the rest to eat it. Alda takes up the offer and is able to down the whole thing without heaving while Torn is forced to run to the bathroom. Would’ve been funnier though had it been Alda who was the one with the bad reaction, or both of them as it really didn’t make sense why Alda, who was not accustomed to that type of food, wouldn’t react to it in the same adverse way.
My Rating: 1 out of 10
Released: August 17, 1979
Runtime: 1 Hour 47 Minutes
Rated PG
Director: Alan Alda
Studio: Universal Studios
Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, YouTube
Scopophilia 