A fabulously intense performance by George Kennedy makes this drama about an unemployed professional truly heart wrenching as he goes from resigned to the reality and hopeful to refusing to show his defeat to finally disgusted, embittered and just having plain given up. Advice from his family and friends, former co-workers and potential employers just begins to make him all the more frustrated, especially when his wife Vera Miles takes a job as a clerk in a high fashion boutique run by neighbor Kevin McCarthy. A young James Woods plays the son-in-law.
The assets of a house, beautiful sail boat and Miles' art studio are expenses that eats up his savings, and it comes to a breaking point for him when he can no longer see a light at the end of the tunnel. Both Kennedy and Miles are excellent, but it's the build-up in the tension for Kennedy's character that makes him all the more commanding. That pit in the stomach that occurs when one's world is upside down and makes clear thinking impossible is very visible in his acting, and it's a far cry from anything else he's ever done. This is a timeless drama that shows that the situation has only changed based on changes in industry and the world, and that there's no easy answer to the problem outside of hope and luck and perseverance.
The assets of a house, beautiful sail boat and Miles' art studio are expenses that eats up his savings, and it comes to a breaking point for him when he can no longer see a light at the end of the tunnel. Both Kennedy and Miles are excellent, but it's the build-up in the tension for Kennedy's character that makes him all the more commanding. That pit in the stomach that occurs when one's world is upside down and makes clear thinking impossible is very visible in his acting, and it's a far cry from anything else he's ever done. This is a timeless drama that shows that the situation has only changed based on changes in industry and the world, and that there's no easy answer to the problem outside of hope and luck and perseverance.