For me, the pleasure of watching this film again, now in 2012, is remembering just how fine an actor Nick Nolte was before he (well, I'll put it politely) "let himself go" (although my favorite performance of his was "Jefferson In Paris". But, this is a close second.
Here, Nolte plays a teacher/football coach from the South Carolina coast, who is asked by his mother to go to New York City to help his sister, who has again attempted suicide. There, he works with his sister's psychiatrist -- Barbra Streisand -- to try to determine was leads the sister to her attempts at self-destruction. In sessions, Streisand plumbs the dysfunctional family in which Nolte and his sister grew up. A moderate number of flashbacks are used, some somewhat disturbing, and an abusive father and a weird mother. Meanwhile, Nolte's own marriage is dissolving. And, just to make it real fun, Nolte and Streisand develop feelings for each other. Finally, Nick reveals to Streisand that as a teen, 3 escaped convicts raped him and mother and his sister, and that his older brother shot 2 of the convicts, while his mother stabbed the other. The shock of the film is...well, best to let you discover that. Will Nick stay with Barbra? Will the sister recover? It's an excellent story by Pat Conroy, and it's difficult not to draw parallels with the kinds of work that Lillian Hellman once wrote.
As I indicated earlier, Nick Nolte is superb...perhaps his finest performance. I was not as impressed with Barbra Streisand's acting here. Not that it was bad. It was fine. But I didn't quite buy into her as a psychiatrist, though I thought her scenes at the dinner party segment and her romantic scenes were excellent. And, I say that as someone who generally enjoyed her in film portrayals, and I actually feel she should have made far more motion pictures. But, I give her immense credit here for here work as producer and director and the film.
Though not a large part, George Carlin is very good playing a "quite" gay friend of the sister's. All the actors do a nice job here, and it is worth noting that Barbra's son in the film really is Barbra's son.
This is an excellent film with a sensitive performance by a once great actor -- Nick Nolte.
Here, Nolte plays a teacher/football coach from the South Carolina coast, who is asked by his mother to go to New York City to help his sister, who has again attempted suicide. There, he works with his sister's psychiatrist -- Barbra Streisand -- to try to determine was leads the sister to her attempts at self-destruction. In sessions, Streisand plumbs the dysfunctional family in which Nolte and his sister grew up. A moderate number of flashbacks are used, some somewhat disturbing, and an abusive father and a weird mother. Meanwhile, Nolte's own marriage is dissolving. And, just to make it real fun, Nolte and Streisand develop feelings for each other. Finally, Nick reveals to Streisand that as a teen, 3 escaped convicts raped him and mother and his sister, and that his older brother shot 2 of the convicts, while his mother stabbed the other. The shock of the film is...well, best to let you discover that. Will Nick stay with Barbra? Will the sister recover? It's an excellent story by Pat Conroy, and it's difficult not to draw parallels with the kinds of work that Lillian Hellman once wrote.
As I indicated earlier, Nick Nolte is superb...perhaps his finest performance. I was not as impressed with Barbra Streisand's acting here. Not that it was bad. It was fine. But I didn't quite buy into her as a psychiatrist, though I thought her scenes at the dinner party segment and her romantic scenes were excellent. And, I say that as someone who generally enjoyed her in film portrayals, and I actually feel she should have made far more motion pictures. But, I give her immense credit here for here work as producer and director and the film.
Though not a large part, George Carlin is very good playing a "quite" gay friend of the sister's. All the actors do a nice job here, and it is worth noting that Barbra's son in the film really is Barbra's son.
This is an excellent film with a sensitive performance by a once great actor -- Nick Nolte.