There are many roles and different actors who play them. Some roles are suited for them others, not. In this Isreal Horovitz's story, Arthur Hiller directs Al Pacino as a Broadway playwright, a role he should have passed. Despite all his great talent, this superb thespian barely attained credibility as Ivan Travalian. Here is a man who by his own admission, was an orphan. There too but for his own efforts, go his many children. Ivan is trying desperately to finish his latest play, while struggling to hold on to his philandering wife Gloria (Tuesday Weld). Personal struggles find him doing his best to understand his troubles, while knowing that what he is doing is the right thing. If that were not enough, with his wife leaving him, Ivan finds Solis in his choice for a leading lady Alice Detroit (Dyan Cannon) a woman who wants him, but not his mix of a family. The story is comedic in rendering, but serious in its nature. With the likes of a true comedy team like Bob and Ray and the late great Alan King, it becomes fascinating to await its outcome. A good story with an over-weight talent like Pacino is like trying to shoot a squirrel with a cannon. ***
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