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A sad, dark comedy based in SLC during the cold winter months. Although it covers a couple years, things just never heat up. The best role for the dad on home alone. Witty writing and good dialogue. Saw on TCM.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/02/24
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Audience Member
Most of the characters are either unlikable or unrelatable, yet it's the shaggy, lived-in humanity of the film which makes it worthwhile. We may not know any one exactly like the people in the movie, but they're written and portrayed so skillfully, an audience should have no trouble believing they exist.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A very very underrated film by the great Joan Michelin Silver.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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Audience Member
A film about a civil servant, Charles,who falls head over heals for a woman, only for her to leave him after 2 months to return to her husband. The film starts in the present but we get to see the relationship through Charle's point of view as he deals with the dispair of losing her from his life. Its a very honest film about the love/obsession which one can have for a significant other, and just how hard it can be on ones soul. John Heard is fantastic as Charles. He is charming and funny, yet plays the heart-broken Charles with just the right amount of tenderness, frustration, and mental confusion. The film clearly believes that even in times of sorrow, things can be very funny and the tone throught-out the film balances the drama and romance very effectively. I swear the 70s have the best romantic comedies ever.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"A romantic comedy for all seasons."
"Love does strange things to people. And Charles is a little strange to begin with."
Charles (John Heard, the father in Home Alone) is a Salt Lake City civil servant who loves (*LOVES*) Laura (Mary Beth Hurt), a lovely housewife with a lovely step-daughter and an A-frame-selling, ex-quarterback husband named Ox (Mark Metcalf; Neidermeyer from Animal House and the Maestro on Seinfeld). His roommate (Peter Riegert from Animal House) is "an unemployed jacket salesman," his mother is a spacey, laxative overdosing, overly eccentric basket-case, his perpetually happy sister finds love in the dorkiest of guys, his step-father (Ke McMillan) has a jones for Turtle Wax and his boss asks him for advice about his Ivy League son's sexual problems.
Suprisingly smart and intuitive film about a relatioship told both in present day ad backflashes. Also features a young Griffin Dunne as his sister's boyfriend....
Blind Man: What do you have?
Charles: I don't have Laura.
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Sam: What do you want from a child her age? She never even went to Woodstock!
Charles: Neither did we.
Sam: But we *could* have.
Charles: That's true.
Susan: Listen, Woodstock was just a bunch of naked stoners looking for a place to pee. I saw the movie!
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Clara: [at Thanksgiving dinner] How are you parents, Sam? Where are they living?
Sam: Well, my fathers living in an apartment on Lee Road and my mother's still in the house.
Clara: Did you hear that Charles? Sam's parents aren't living together!
Charles: You knew that, mom! Sam's parents haven't lived together since Sam and I were in the eighth grade.
Clara: I certainly did not know that! That must make you very sad, Sam.
Sam: I'm accustomed to it.
Clara: Brave boy!
Charles: Do you want me to get the food, mother?
Clara: What food?
Charles: The turkey!
Clara: There isn't any turkey.
Charles: Well, whatever it is that you prepared, would you like me to go into the kitchen and get it?
Clara: I didn't prepare anything. There isn't any dinner. Ha ha. There isn't any dinner!
Sam: I guess the joke's on us.
Clara: [laughing hysterically] That's right. The joke's on you!
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Charles: That's a nice ribbon in your hair.
Clara: Well, I told the nurse that it was like the song. "Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree."
[starts to sing]
Mrs. DeLillo: [wearing a green ribbon] And I say tie a green ribbon 'round the old oak tree.
Clara: Mine's a real song!
Pete: Mommy sure does know her music, doesn't she?
Mrs. DeLillo: [angrily] Huh!
Pete: Mrs. DeLillo knows her music, too.
Mrs. DeLillo: Thank you so much.
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Blind Man: What do you want?
Charles: [laughing crazily] What do I want? I wanna marry Laura. I thought everybody knew that. I'd even settle for living with her. What do I want? Let's talk about what I have. You know what I have? I have, I have... an unemployed jacket salesman living in my spare room, I have a mother that won't get out of the bathtub, I have a sister that always wants me to be happy, I have a stepfather that wants me to take disco lessons and I have a secretary that wants me to throw parties so that she can make dips. And I have this boss that wants *me* to give his son advice on his sexual problems!
Blind Man: You've been up all night. That only makes things look worse.
Charles: Yeah? I really thought I was having a nervous breakdown for a second there.
Blind Man: [sympathetically] Oh, sure!
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Charles: [listening to Janis Joplin's 'Get It While You Can'] Janis, how can I get it if she won't come out of her A-frame?
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Laura: Well, I haven't felt "terrific" in a long time.
Charles: If I make you feel terrific, will you marry me?
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Betty: [collecting her boss's work] Is this all you have?
Charles: That's a profound question!
Betty: What?
Charles: That's all I have.
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Charles: What's your name?
Laura: Laura Connelly
Charles: What a...
Laura: [finishing his sentence] "What a beautiful name."
Charles: No, no. I wasn't gonna say that. I wasn't gonna say "What a beautiful name." I was gonna say "What a coincidence!"
Laura: What?
Charles: That your name is Laura. My name is Charles.
Laura: I don't get it. What's the coincidence?
Charles: There isn't any. Just wanted to tell you my name.
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Charles: [walking into Laura's unfurnished apartment] I thought maybe this might be your minimalist period.
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Charles: Could you imagine living with a man named Ox?
Susan: Yes, if she's happy.
Charles: She's not happy.
Susan: Are you happy?
Charles: What's happy?
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Charles: The day my grandfather killed himself, he went hunting and shot two grouse. After the funeral, my grandmother cleaned and cooked the grouse.
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Charles: [examining a movie poster for a skin flick] You're prettier than she is.
Laura: Now I'm prettier than a porno star. Would you stop it?
Charles: Stop what?
Laura: We go to movies and you say I look better than the movie stars. We go to the best restaurant in town and you say I'm a better cook than the chef. You have this exulted view of me and I hate it. If you think I'm that great, there must be something wrong with you.
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Charles: I thought you said you were on the trampoline team in high school.
Laura: I was on the trampoline team in high school.
Charles: That must have been before it became a competitive sport.
Laura: I never said I was any good you know. See, I had these terrible bow-legs. Somebody told me if you jump on the trampoline a lot, it'll straighten out your bow-legs.
Charles: How can jumping on a trampoline straighten out bow-legs?
Laura: I was misinformed!
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Mrs. DeLillo: The Lord have mercy on your soul.
Charles: Thank you.
Mrs. DeLillo: Do you smoke?
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Blind Man: What've you got?
Charles: I haven't got Laura.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A good movie about love lost. There are some good actors in this movie, too. I liked it, it's good, not great, but good.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
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