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A Disappointing Continuation

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Barefoot In The Park is an amazingly scripted and well-performed movie about a newlywed couple. Madly in love, opposites attract and find themselves spending all day and night inside their room for a whole week on their honeymoon. After the clouds fade, they begin to settle into their new apartment. There are a couple complications. The room is too small for anything other than a single bed, there is a crack in the ceiling, and the apartment is on the 5th floor. There is no elevator and every person is exhausted by the time they reach the top. Buckle in and get ready for a sweet and entertaining comedy.

Another film adaptation of Neil Simon's play with the same name, directed by his frequent collaborator, the stage and film directer Gene Saks, who has recently passed away at the age of 93. It pairs Fonda and Redford as a couple of newlyweds Corie and Paul, whose marriage is hanging on a thread when they find out their personalities are poles apart. Like the outworn running gag of climbing a five-storey building (New Yorkers are really that easy to be defeated by this not-so-challenging altitude?), the film doesn't weather too well through the time, its story is quite common-or-garden, the adventurous spirit Vs. the prudent comportment, which is also reflected by pairing up their idiosyncratic neighbor Victor (Boyer) and Corie's widow mother Ethel (Natwick). Nothing is wrong about all that, but the viewing experience is chiefly blighted by Fonda's hammy endeavour to be "funny", her character is irritating to say the least, and her high-pitched voice doesn't help either, surely her hyperactive restlessness is by design, but the effect is cringe-worthy, what is the virtue of this woman (apart from her gymnastic physique)? Maybe it is the gaping generation gap which sours the supposed comedic moment for Generation Y. Also knowing that Simon based the story on his first marriage, it could be a deliberate manoeuvre of aggrandisement with an intent of personal mockery. Redford, on the other hand, is in a safer place of being likable, by the way, he is reprising his role in the original play, he has that kind of awkward charm of "pretty boy entrapped in a nicely-fitting suit", and when it comes to his "barefoot in the park" inebriated caper, he is competent enough to act in a comedy without overdoing what the script offers. But the amorous frisson between him and Fonda has never hit the boiling point, in spite of the fact they kiss a lot in the movie, mostly instigated by the free-spirited Corie, whose aggressive longing and volatility is the killjoy of any romance at all. Veteran theatrical dab hand Mildred Natwick is honoured with an Oscar nomination for rehashing her role in the film version, she both dignifiedly and comically personifies Ethel as possibly "the kindest mother-in-law" ever on the silver screen; also Charles Boyer exhibits a droll poise with his exotic panache, oddly enough, their flirtation seems to be more appealing than our two young protagonists. Anyhow, it is sad to find out there is a Jane Fonda's performance I am wholeheartedly unable to stomach, this is something I could never have expected before watching this substandard Neil Simon flick.

This film was a riot for me when I first saw it many years ago (well, not that many, darling). Seriously, I was very young then and now it looks dated, theatrical and (should I say it?) a bit forced. Many silly situations in the film would have been so easily avoided or explained, and most characters behave the same childish and exaggerated way, always complaining about something and with oh so much humor...And now for the good part: the acting is brilliant (let aside the exaggerations in the script), first of all that of Jane Fonda and Charles Boyer. I rarely wish for a remake of a classic, but this one deserves it to gain a more realistic feel. How about Amy Adams (who even looks a bit like Jane Fonda)? Or Jim Carrey as Victor?

It is no longer funny and would really have had limited appeal in its day. The lines are some of Neil Simon's weakest, the acting may have worked on a stage, but do not transfer. That it relies on repeated jokes makes it pretty tedious, in fact. That it has leading actors and in the direction, and other support does not lend it anything either. If you liked that kind of Broadway show, farce that has little wit and limited visual humour I suppose it might, possibly, work. I usually do but not here. The sets are about as minimal in interest and thought as could have been from a stage version. Better quietly forgotten by all by the aficionados.