Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel star in this tale of love found among imperfect people. Gena tells a girlfriend of hers that all these old movies they see set the bar up too high for today's (the 1970s) generation. There are no heroes, no gentlemen on a white steed, no Bogies. Then, she chances to meet Seymour Cassel, who just moved to California. He is a parking-lot attendant and intercedes for her to get rid of an eccentric date and gets into a fight. Thus, their friendship and interest in each other begins.
I must admit this was rather funny in an unusual way, with the viewer laughing almost nonstop at Seymour's unashamed passion for Gena, with such outrageous statements, like "I can't think straight when I'm around you. I can't even remember to go the bathroom, when I'm around you." And, they seem to be constantly either yelling at each other or eating or asking each other, are you hungry. It's kind of haphazard in its pace. But at least it keeps you guessing and keeps the viewer interested. But the constant zigzag-ness of it makes me feel as if the script was thrown together.
It's not inherently bad, but with so much of everything thrown in, it doesn't feel especially balanced. (And, Gena Rowlands is always good, and Seymour is memorable in probably his most energetic role of the 1970s.) But I do see what Cassavetes was saying, with its frantic approach to life: that we are all imperfect and we have to love and accept each other with all of our eccentric flaws. Having said that, I don't know that I needed to see this movie to realize that, and I don't know that I would see this again just to see Gena.
That was Gena's mother as her mother at the end, by the way. And, to top it all off, Seymour's mother really put him down in the last few minutes of the movie, which makes the viewer appreciate even more Gena's ultimate acceptance of his proposal, and how did writer/director Cassavetes come up with names like Moskowitz and Minnie Moore? I guess by the end of the movie Gena is now Minnie Moore Moskowitz. On that note....
I must admit this was rather funny in an unusual way, with the viewer laughing almost nonstop at Seymour's unashamed passion for Gena, with such outrageous statements, like "I can't think straight when I'm around you. I can't even remember to go the bathroom, when I'm around you." And, they seem to be constantly either yelling at each other or eating or asking each other, are you hungry. It's kind of haphazard in its pace. But at least it keeps you guessing and keeps the viewer interested. But the constant zigzag-ness of it makes me feel as if the script was thrown together.
It's not inherently bad, but with so much of everything thrown in, it doesn't feel especially balanced. (And, Gena Rowlands is always good, and Seymour is memorable in probably his most energetic role of the 1970s.) But I do see what Cassavetes was saying, with its frantic approach to life: that we are all imperfect and we have to love and accept each other with all of our eccentric flaws. Having said that, I don't know that I needed to see this movie to realize that, and I don't know that I would see this again just to see Gena.
That was Gena's mother as her mother at the end, by the way. And, to top it all off, Seymour's mother really put him down in the last few minutes of the movie, which makes the viewer appreciate even more Gena's ultimate acceptance of his proposal, and how did writer/director Cassavetes come up with names like Moskowitz and Minnie Moore? I guess by the end of the movie Gena is now Minnie Moore Moskowitz. On that note....