Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

As Good As It Gets

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The ending is almost operatic in its perfection, but not quite (I would prefer the last 3 minutes just excised. However, we can't expect either Sidney Sheldon (if the ending is true to the book - I have no idea) or Hollywood to "get" true "Italianate" endings.Anyway, I found the story quite believable and the plot twists effective. And the acting is great. Marie-France Pisier is grandly, operatic - and entirely convincing - as the forgotten lover who will not let go. Susan Sarandon was also excellent as a creatively brilliant corporate-type who latches on to the wrong man. and Clu Gulager is perfect as a squeaky-clean corporate guy (why would one want to be any other way?) except for his way-too '70s hair-do (but then that problem pervades the movie, which is set from 1939-47). Now about John Beck: why don't I know more about him? He played the "dick" (not in the detective sense) superbly - letting his "little head" lead him about until the movie's end, while his "big head" is blithely amoral and absolutely oblivious to the emotional needs of women - something that Italian opera composers exploit so well, as does this movie. And the parade of cynically amoral, seedily corrupt Europeans gives the movie real authenticity as a portrait of the decadence that enveloped wartime Vichy France and its immediate aftermath, and, unfortunately, has gotten worse throughout all Europe (including the UK) since then.So this movie is not the "BOMB" that Siskel & Ebert (or whoever wrote my 1998 movie guide) say it is - it is not dreck, but quite a fine, compelling drama, set in the sexual turmoil that was World War II.

Amazing that Noelle Page (Marie France Pissier) had it all, and managed to lose everything-including her life in this interesting 1977 film.John Beck is no leading actor and he proved that in this film. Not one to have good looks, Beck is miscast as the pilot who believes in impregnating women and then dumping them.Raf Vallone plays an Aristotle Onassis like-character with vengeance in his heart.The real solid performance here is by Susan Sarandon, who starts off as a meek secretary, who falls under the spell of Beck and even marries him.This is definitely a story of lust, greed, hate and vengeance, nicely done. Beginning in 1939, surprisingly it really doesn't deal with the war, but with people caught up in lust and ultimate misery.The ironic ending must serve as a reminder to all that the wealthy have unbelievable power in society.

"Anne of a Thousand Days" director Charles Jarrott's "The Other Side of Midnight" struggles hopelessly to amount to a sophisticated romantic revenge melodrama. Sadly, scenarists Herman Raucher and Daniel Taradash's adaptation of author Sidney Sheldon's bestseller ends up as a sophomoric comic book soap opera. Initially, this is surprising when you consider that Jarrott also helmed "Mary, Queen of Scots" and the splendid Jack Palance made-for-television chiller "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" from 1968. We'll try to forget his movie misfire, the musical version of "Lost Horizon." Not only was Herman Raucher, who wrote the bestseller "Summer of '42," no lightweight penman, but also neither was Oscar winning scribe Daniel Taradash who penned "From Here to Eternity" as well as "Golden Boy," "Picnic," and "Hawaii." Meanwhile, what is not so surprising is the basis for the film, Sidney Sheldon's bestseller. The leads are nothing spectacular. Vietnamese born French woman Marie-France Pisier went nowhere in America and her leading man John Beck didn't make much of an impression and wound up playing supporting roles. Only Susan Sarandon had a Hollywood career to speak of.Essentially, "The Other Side of Midnight" occurs before, during, and after World War II, but it is not a war picture. The Raucher & Taradash screenplay deals with a love quadrangle. French ingénue Noelle Page (Marie-France Pisier of "French Postcards") is sold into the fashion business by her father. Jacques Page (Roger Etienne of "Marathon Man") advises his daughter, "You have beauty. It's your only weapon of survival. Let the hand under your dress wear gold." She is shocked by this advice and at firsts tries to be a good girl. Not long afterward, however, Noelle surrenders her virtue to a greedy little dressmaker Lanchon (Sorrell Brooke of "The Dukes of Hazzard") and he wants her to fulfill his every desire. Instead, Noelle flees to Paris and runs into a dashing, no-good jock of a Royal Air Force pilot, Larry Douglas (John Beck of "Rollerball"), who wines and dines her. No sooner does Larry promise to marry Noelle than he abandons her with a baby and a bleak future. Wielding a coat hanger, Noelle aborts her baby in a bathtub and decides to use her body to become a high-priced fashion model and European film starlet.Meanwhile, Catherine Alexander (Susan Sarandon of "Joe") is a fortune-seeking American girl who seeks her fortune in Washington, D.C. As a magazine advertiser, Catherine can only handle the really tough assignments and fouls up the easy ones. Dispatched to Hollywood to produce a war documentary, she falls in love inadvertently with that no-good Larry who takes her to the altar. After the war, Larry suffers problems readjusting to normal life, a problem which is financed by Noelle who is determined to ruin his life and force him to return to her and marry him! While engineering Larry's downfall, Noelle becomes the mistress of a vindictive Greek millionaire Constantin Demeris (Raf Vallone of "Nevada Smith"), the richest man in the world. Larry winds up as the pilot for Noelle's plane which the Greek buys for her and she begins an affair with Larry behind the Greek's back. Ironically, Noelle cannot marry Larry who she really and truly loves because he cannot divorce Catherine who worships Larry like a god. Imagine what happens next? This kind of absurdity is dragged out for well over two and a half hours and "The Other Side of Midnight" feels like it takes that long for the events to resolve themselves. Director Charles Jarrott tries to relieve this tedium by flaunting classy production values. Furthermore, Oscar winning "Towering Inferno" cinematographer Fred J. Koenekamp provides some stunning picture postcard photography of Greece. He makes it seem like you are watching an extended tourist travelogue. When you're not a tourist, you're a voyeur. Koenekamp's cameras turn the bedroom and the nudity of its stars into a geographical "Playboy" shoot. Expect a lot of profanity and sex from this epic along with some occasional suspense. The way the script spells everything out ensures that nothing will be left to your imagination. "The Other Side of Midnight" qualifies as little more than glossy trash. Further, the way thing develop makes this film seem unintentionally silly and stupid. For example, why does Noelle go to such lengths to wreck what starts out to be revenge? Despite the film's numerous faults, there are some women who dream of being a princess and men who crave all the wealth and power that the world can offer. These people may find something redeeming about this sappy soap opera. All that can be said about "The Other Side of Midnight" is that the filmmakers or novelist Sidney Sheldon refrain for anteing up another side of "Midnight!"

If this were to have been done twenty years later with a modern sensibility, gullible stars, a more lethal editor, and a spot more atmosphere, it could well have ended up as a hit. The budget was obviously good, and the photography is mostly excellent despite its too-frequent descent into seventies syrup. The lighting (and look) tends to be pretty uniform - for example, Wartime Paris was apparently a beautifully colorful time, and the mood gay and sumptuous, but then so is everything else, right down to the fitted carpet. The debt owed to the black and white classics is apparent, but there is something very unconvincing about using the old styles of movie-making with full-on glossy, TV color. A shame they didn't go all the way, and let the hammers fly -for heavens' sake give me some deep shadow when the lights are on. All in all, the zoom lens is over-active, the script underwhelming, and the score dreary. The performances, however, are lively and committed and the styling and costumes sometimes inspired. "Entraptured" as I was, I couldn't help feeling I was watching a Judith Krantz novel....oh, that's right - it's Sidney Sheldon! Compelling nonetheless...