Finally seen this after many years of hearing about it. Don't know what to make of it. The acting in this film is incredible, everyone is giving 100%. Arkin clearly was letting his fellow actors do their job. The script is really good too. There's excellent comic dialog through out.
The story...well that's the problem. What starts out to be a satire on life in New York City in the late sixties veers into paranoia, then near surrealism, back into satire and finally into pitch-black comedy. When it ended I had no idea what the point was (not that a film needs a point but this seems like there was a point intended). The movie takes a somber turn when Gould's character reunites with his crazy parents after many years and just when you think it's going to end, Marcia Rodd's character is horribly murdered and movie continues for another 20 minutes. Given that the movie revolves around Ms. Rodd's well played comic character for the first hour, the loss really tosses the whole film into a pit of despair it can't get out. The comedy tries to return when Gould's character returns to his parent-in-laws apartment but the terror from the murder and following subway scene overwhelms. Mr. Arkin starts out funny in his brief appearance as a detective but his character quickly goes crazy. After witnessing the murder, the craziness is no longer funny.
Given that Mr. Feiffer was always a New Yorker, I can't imagine what he was getting at by portraying the city in such a negative light. I was waiting for the movie to go full out, like Terry Gilliam's Brazil did, but it kept returning to normal scenes of New York. The film almost becomes science fiction but never gets there. Having lived in the city at the time (still live here), I understood some of the references but the sniper stuff was out of line.
I can only imagine that Mr. Feiffer was thinking of the surrealist classic "L'age d'Or" where the main character starts shooting a rifle out a window (he also throws a giraffe out the window). If Ms. Rodd's character survived and she joined the other characters in the ending, the film might have worked.
Recommended for the wonderful performances and great script. The sensitive might want to stop after the parental reunion scene.
The story...well that's the problem. What starts out to be a satire on life in New York City in the late sixties veers into paranoia, then near surrealism, back into satire and finally into pitch-black comedy. When it ended I had no idea what the point was (not that a film needs a point but this seems like there was a point intended). The movie takes a somber turn when Gould's character reunites with his crazy parents after many years and just when you think it's going to end, Marcia Rodd's character is horribly murdered and movie continues for another 20 minutes. Given that the movie revolves around Ms. Rodd's well played comic character for the first hour, the loss really tosses the whole film into a pit of despair it can't get out. The comedy tries to return when Gould's character returns to his parent-in-laws apartment but the terror from the murder and following subway scene overwhelms. Mr. Arkin starts out funny in his brief appearance as a detective but his character quickly goes crazy. After witnessing the murder, the craziness is no longer funny.
Given that Mr. Feiffer was always a New Yorker, I can't imagine what he was getting at by portraying the city in such a negative light. I was waiting for the movie to go full out, like Terry Gilliam's Brazil did, but it kept returning to normal scenes of New York. The film almost becomes science fiction but never gets there. Having lived in the city at the time (still live here), I understood some of the references but the sniper stuff was out of line.
I can only imagine that Mr. Feiffer was thinking of the surrealist classic "L'age d'Or" where the main character starts shooting a rifle out a window (he also throws a giraffe out the window). If Ms. Rodd's character survived and she joined the other characters in the ending, the film might have worked.
Recommended for the wonderful performances and great script. The sensitive might want to stop after the parental reunion scene.