The Last Married Couple in America (1980) User Reviews

Not too bad

[preppy-3 · 5/10 · 17 May 2009]

Jeff (George Segal) and Mari (Natalie Wood) Thompson are a happily married couple...but all the other married couples they know are divorced or separated and seem happy being single. It leads them to start questioning their own marriage and if they really are happy.

I only caught this for Natalie Wood. This film was not a success (I remember it bombed badly back in 1980) and it was Wood's second to last theatrical film. It's not as bad as I've heard but no great movie either. It has a LOT of sex talk and jokes and bed hopping (this was pre-AIDS) but surprisingly no nudity till the very end. In fact, it plays a lot like an R rated sitcom. The script actually isn't bad--it perfectly captures the late 1970s styles, language and attitude towards sex and marriage. But, it cops out at the end and becomes VERY conventional. Pretty typical for a Hollywood sex comedy. The cast is very attractive--Segal overacts but in an endearing way, Wood is just great and looks fantastic (it's surprising to hear her swear!} and Valerie Harper is excellent as a sexually liberated woman. The biggest problem here is that it's never really funny. It's only mildly amusing at best. Still if you're interested in the 1970s and their view of sex you'll probably like this. I give it a 5.

Bluish comedy with an underlining moral...adult peer pressure leading to extramarital activities

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 28 August 2010]

George Segal and Natalie Wood portray an upper-class married couple in Los Angeles who find they are the last of a dying breed: all the men and women within their circle of friends are separated from their spouses, divorced, or on the make. Occasionally smart and amusing screenplay by John Herman Shaner doesn't take a righteous stand on the sexy goings-on, though Shaner is quick to point out the pitfalls of the swinging middle-ager (impotency, venereal disease, unfulfilled coupling). Gilbert Cates directs it like an R-rated TV show, though some of the intended bite (laced with grown-up, witty humor) manages to come through, and the cast is good--however less of hammy Dom DeLuise would have been an improvement. Wood, in particular, shows a great deal of growth since her not-dissimilar dalliance with sexual inhibitions in 1969's "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"; she's surprisingly loose and physical here, and works comfortably with Segal, though George himself is rather wrung-out. With the sexual revolution of the 1970s fading fast upon its release, the film didn't stand a chance at the box-office, but parts of it are very funny and trenchant and have held up well. ** from ****

Neither the "last" nor the "best" of its genre.

[gridoon · 5/10 · 29 April 2002]

"The Last Married Couple In America" is a misfire, and a waste of a perfectly good cast. In fact, the great chemistry between George Segal and Natalie Wood is the only thing that forces me to give this movie a ** rating, instead of the more appropriate *1/2. But to be a movie exclusively about marriage and not to be able to present even one meaningful insight into the subject in more than 100 minutes is quite a feat, indeed!

Dated, Terrible Movie but It's Agenda is Prophetic....

[chconnol · 2/10 · 13 July 2006]

See "The Last Married Couple in America" with "Serial" (released around the same time...) and you get a good idea of what ideas were floating around during the late 70s and early 80s.

Though both films are not very good and they are horribly dated (in a fun way) they reflect a post 60s hangover attitude that's interesting in light of what occurred in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan.

Many thought that the 60s was going to usher in a whole new perspective and enlightenment to the masses. The use of drugs and free love was supposed to push all people's barriers down and out and a new world was to be created. Most people may not have completely shared in that feeling but there was a strong feeling of new and better things were going to happen.

But of course it didn't. People were burned out in the 70s and reality settled in: drugs, free love...it didn't change much at all. And in some cases, it made things worse by making it all so confusing. People who thought that the 60s were going to make everything better were disillusioned to find that nothing fundamental had really changed at all.

That's where "The Last Married Couple in America" and "Serial" take their cues. Both movies start off by trying to be "risky", "edgy" and "daring" by using a lot of four letter words and pseudo-risqué sex scenes (all pretty conventional, actually). The jokes are just sitcom material spiced up with "naughty" words.

In the end, both movies end with a very comfortable reaffirmation of the family/marriage unit and a rejection of the sexual revolution.

OK...so there might be some ripe material made out of this. But neither of these two is it, especially "The Last Married Couple in America". It's another one of those lame 70s comedies like "Silver Bears" with Cybil Shepherd. These are the types of films that even when they were released, I couldn't figure out who would pay money to see them.

See it for Natalie Wood

[Payne722 · 7/10 · 4 September 2006]

No, this isn't a very good movie. Fun to watch though if for no other reason than to laugh at the supposed 'hip' attitude of the whole thing when in truth it's about as conventional as a Love Boat episode. The party scene at the end with the hookers, swingers and disco version of 'Singin' in the Rain' is hilarious.

But the reason to see this movie is for Natalie Wood, who gives this film heart. She's absolutely wonderful in it. She was a terrific actress, even in something as frivolous as this ... funny, beautiful, a class act to the very end! None of today's actresses come close to her kind of star-power. I miss great actresses like Natalie Wood.

Train Wreck!

[DoloresHaze-1 · 1/10 · 4 November 2007]

This movie is so bad it's jaw-dropping. How did Natalie Wood and George Segal agree to be in this mess? Maybe she thought it would be critically acclaimed like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice - her earlier film about bored upper-class marrieds. No one in the entire film acts remotely like a real human being. Valerie Harper in an unflattering blonde hairdo tries way too hard to be sexy; Bob Dishy, Marilyn Sokol, Dick Benjamin and Alan Arbus play embarrassing roles requiring them to complain non-stop about their sex lives, and Dom Delouise does a bizarre sleazy dance with his hooker-wife! However on the positive side, because it's SOOO bad, it's actually entertaining. Check out the BAD perms on almost everyone - male and female. And how often do you see a star like Natalie Wood say ass****, the f-word, watch a young woman strip naked, AND complain about her period all in the same movie?!

A fun look back at the 70s

[kgehebe · 7/10 · 13 March 2020]

A fun take on the aftermath of the sexual revolution but could have been better. Natalie Wood and George Segal are a 40ish couple who are happily married but seem to be the only ones left in their circle of friends who still are. They are under constant peer pressure from their friends to seek out extramarital affairs. Eventually Segal is seduced by Wood's friend Barbara played by a blonde Valerie Harper (cast against type from her long TV role as Rhoda Morgenstern) The supporting cast are stellar, a who's who of comedic actors of that era; Richard Benjamin, Alan Arbus, Bob Dishy and Priscilla Barnes but its the effortless chemistry between Natalie Wood and George Segal that are the backbone of the movie. Natalie's performances in her later years were far better than she's been given credit for. Her entire career were various snapshots of the mores of the times. She ultimately always made America feel good about its moral center even in her tragic roles. The sitcom feel of the whole film does it a disservice because it could have held up better over time if the script was better. Seeing this in 2020 is more like an archeological excavation digging up bones of a long lost civilization instead of a witty character study like Annie Hall or Manhattan. All and all its a worthwhile watch even just to see Natalie's last completed theatrical release.

R-rated Sitcom is a Time Capsule of the Late 70s

[mrb1980 · 6/10 · 5 February 2017]

When I was watching "The Last Married Couple in America" recently, I made note of the uninhibited anything-goes attitudes that it exhibited, so typical of the late 1970s. There were open relationships, bawdy parties, rampant divorce, and all manner of outrageous behaviors that typified that era.

Mari (Natalie Wood) and Jeff (George Segal) are a happy married California couple that stays together despite all of their friends going through divorces and various personal crises. When Jeff cheats on Mari with a mutual acquaintance (Valerie Harper), the couple separates and tries the single life. Naturally, they reunite after discovering that being single isn't so great after all, and all is happy with their family and the world.

This movie certainly has a great cast (including Richard Benjamin, Priscilla Barnes, Bob Dishy, and Dom DeLuise) but its story line is almost like a TV show transplanted into an R-rated movie. There are plenty of laughs and some pretty good scenes (including a crazy party scene toward the end), but I was left feeling that I had just watched a 1970s sitcom with some salty language and sex scenes thrown in. The supporting cast is very good, with Richard Benjamin outrageously funny as one of Segal's divorcing friends, and a very young and attractive Priscilla Barnes. Watching the film was a pleasant experience and it was nice to re-live early 1980, but in the end it wasn't anything really special.

A Great Comedy of Late Seventies

[cinefilo-6 · 10/10 · 14 August 2001]

One of the most underrated movies of late seventies.Good direction by Gilbert Cates in a witty screenplay the players are excellent.The chemistry between Wood and Segal are a gift from heaven.The scenes between the main characters are touching.The supporting players are nice too specially Dom DeLuise and Marilyn Sokol.A movie to be discover.

Be happy in your relationship

[GOWBTW · 9/10 · 30 March 2018]

Natalie Wood was best known for her childhood role in "Miracle on 34th Street". And don't forget the sexual revolution film, "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice". I'm this film it is quite similar, only with morals to back it up. George Segal and Natalie Wood play Jeff and Mari Thompson, a married couple with three boys. They have friends who are married. Then suddenly, each one they knew have separated or divorced. And they began to question their own relationship. Their marriage is tested when Maria's friend Barbara(Valerie Harper) comes into town, and hits on Jeff. Knowing to be very faithful to his wife, he would brush her off. Until one night, he did the deed. After getting a STD, Mari decided to do the same. The only thing they could get back together is with a friend's birthday party. This movie has got a great cast and great scenes. Dom Deluise was great. And I couldn't picture Valerie Harper as a blonde. She did look great though. And my favorite scene was the birthday surprises. Taking Jeff to his hangout, and flashing him when he was unaware of the fur coat suspicion. It's a very good movie, I enjoyed every moment of it. 3.5 out of 5 stars