Loving (film)
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| Loving | |
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 DVD Cover |
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| Directed by | Irvin Kershner |
| Produced by | Don Devlin |
| Written by | Don Devlin J.M. Ryan |
| Starring | George Segal Eva Marie Saint |
| Music by | Bernardo Segall |
| Cinematography | Gordon Willis |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 4 March, 1970 |
| Running time | 89 min. |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Loving (1970) is an American motion picture released by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Irvin Kershner, famous for directing the second movie in the Star Wars trilogy The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and based on the novel of the same name by author J. M. Ryan.
It starred George Segal and Eva Marie Saint in the lead roles, as Brooks Wilson and his wife Selma. The film also featured Sterling Hayden as a tycoon, David Doyle of Charlie's Angels fame, comedian Keenan Wynn, Roy Scheider of Jaws fame, and future 20th Century Fox president Sherry Lansing in small roles.
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[edit] Synopsis
Brooks Wilson (George Segal) is a busy man, juggling his work as a commercial artist with a marriage to Selma (Eva Marie Saint) and two young children. He also has a girlfriend on the side named Grace (Janis Young) who wants him to commit to her, but he cannot do this.
Brooks is trying very hard to land an elusive account from Lepridon (Sterling Hayden), but this is seeming harder to achieve than he thought. A party is held one evening in a grand Connecticut home, where both Brooks and Selma are invited. Feeling his life is falling apart at the seams, Brooks realises another affair, this time with flirty Nelly (Nancie Phillips), wife of his associate Will (David Doyle).
They go to a children's playhouse which is outside the home where the party is being held, and their indiscretions are caught on closed-circuit television. Selma and Will are devastated, and a fist-fight between Brooks and Will ensues. After the commotion dies down, the harried Brooks tells Selma that he finally landed the Lepridon account. She smacks him senselessly with her handbag, and they stare at each other in silence, seeing their marriage honestly for the very first time.
[edit] Critical Reception
The film has generally been well received by critics. Steven Scheuer found the film "quietly intense" and "humorous, human, and insightful", but found the film's final scene "incongruous in its farcical mayhem," (Scheuer, 1990: 641). On the other hand, Leonard Maltin found the film's climax "superb" and praised the director on his "great feeling for day-to-day detail [of the characters' lives]" (Maltin, 1991: 730).
Roger Ebert found the film "an amusing and intelligent comedy of manners" (Ebert, 1970) with a great central performance by George Segal. Clive Hirschhorn noted the while the film was "well-observed", and was truly "Segal's film", it was still "uneven" in content (Hirschhorn, 1989: 285). Perhaps the review that most sums up the film comes from Leslie Halliwell, "smart New York sex comedy, typical of many but better than most," (Halliwell, 2000: 496).
[edit] References
- Ebert, Roger (1970) Loving Chicago Sun-Times, October 15, 1970. (accessed 15 January 2008). [1]
- Halliwell, Leslie (2000) Walker, John (ed.) Halliwell's Film & Video Guide 2001, HarperCollinsEntertainment, London.
- Hirschhorn, Clive (1989) The Columbia Story, Pyramid Books, London.
- Maltin, Leonard (1991) Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1992, Signet, New York.
- Scheuer, Steven H. (1990) Movies on TV and Videocassette, Bamtam Books, New York.
[edit] External links
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