Sandwiched between "A Clockwork Orange" and "O Lucky Man", undoubtedly two of the best movies ever made and both with Malcolm McDowell, is this modest little drama. A total waste of the young McDowell, which is the best version of McDowell.
The movie's synopsis sounded like some formulaic soapy weeper, to sat the least, the type of downer drama that we can safely characterize as "Oscar bait". You know the type: a person ends up in a wheelchair or bed-ridden, and then somebody (or that person) dies at the end. And sure enough, this is exactly what happens: McDowell ends up in a wheelchair - and his fiancée VERY predictably dies in the end. The hell is the point of such pap?
What a waste of young McDowell! Imagine a writer-director who'd actually waste a young McDowell in such a pathetic, cliché, stagnant role. They really ought to have hired someone else, not because I'm saying Malcolm can't play this sort of lame part, because it's obvious he can - and he did it well. It's the fact that he could have filmed some far better movie during this brief period when he was at his best, leaving this kind of housewife crap for the mediocre actors who deserve no better. Already by the late 70s McDowell had lost that quality that made him so unique in his youth, during his 20s. He still had some great parts (among the 5000 movies he later made) and he remained interesting, but he wasn't quite the same. Still, one can't say he wasn't a "lucky man": he got to do three uppermost-tier classics during this narrow window of time, and if we count "Caligula" as well (which I know he wouldn't), then it's four of them.
The first third, the intro, has fairly clumsy and pointless dialog which serves little purpose, aside from telling us that he was an active, energetic youth, like most others. Then suddenly he falls to the ground - and the next thing we know he's bed-ridden for life. Now, I'm not complaining that the movie didn't make his health downfall more dramatic or detailed: it's better this way i.e. It's good that we were spared the pathos involving a potentially overlong section detailing his health problem. However, this approach does seem extremely rushed, badly conceived.
Even worse - and similarly clumsy/rushed - is the conclusion, which, as I mentioned, is completely and utterly predictable, as generic as it gets. A great big fat cop-out: any viewer with half a brain cell must know well in advance that one of the two wheel-chair lovers would snuff it. And that's what happened. Just as Malcolm became an invalid without rhyme or reason or (satisfying) explanation, his girlfriend dies in a similarly stupid way. No (satisfying) explanation, no development, just one big fat cliché to end an ultimately pointless movie.
The only solid bits are in the middle section, i.e. Malcolm's adjustment to his new living quarters. The rest is all lame.
The movie's synopsis sounded like some formulaic soapy weeper, to sat the least, the type of downer drama that we can safely characterize as "Oscar bait". You know the type: a person ends up in a wheelchair or bed-ridden, and then somebody (or that person) dies at the end. And sure enough, this is exactly what happens: McDowell ends up in a wheelchair - and his fiancée VERY predictably dies in the end. The hell is the point of such pap?
What a waste of young McDowell! Imagine a writer-director who'd actually waste a young McDowell in such a pathetic, cliché, stagnant role. They really ought to have hired someone else, not because I'm saying Malcolm can't play this sort of lame part, because it's obvious he can - and he did it well. It's the fact that he could have filmed some far better movie during this brief period when he was at his best, leaving this kind of housewife crap for the mediocre actors who deserve no better. Already by the late 70s McDowell had lost that quality that made him so unique in his youth, during his 20s. He still had some great parts (among the 5000 movies he later made) and he remained interesting, but he wasn't quite the same. Still, one can't say he wasn't a "lucky man": he got to do three uppermost-tier classics during this narrow window of time, and if we count "Caligula" as well (which I know he wouldn't), then it's four of them.
The first third, the intro, has fairly clumsy and pointless dialog which serves little purpose, aside from telling us that he was an active, energetic youth, like most others. Then suddenly he falls to the ground - and the next thing we know he's bed-ridden for life. Now, I'm not complaining that the movie didn't make his health downfall more dramatic or detailed: it's better this way i.e. It's good that we were spared the pathos involving a potentially overlong section detailing his health problem. However, this approach does seem extremely rushed, badly conceived.
Even worse - and similarly clumsy/rushed - is the conclusion, which, as I mentioned, is completely and utterly predictable, as generic as it gets. A great big fat cop-out: any viewer with half a brain cell must know well in advance that one of the two wheel-chair lovers would snuff it. And that's what happened. Just as Malcolm became an invalid without rhyme or reason or (satisfying) explanation, his girlfriend dies in a similarly stupid way. No (satisfying) explanation, no development, just one big fat cliché to end an ultimately pointless movie.
The only solid bits are in the middle section, i.e. Malcolm's adjustment to his new living quarters. The rest is all lame.