Bad Manners (1997)

Wes and Nancy are a married academics couple. One day they host Nancy's long-ago lover Matt and his current sexy girlfriend Kim. Matt is a musician and Kim is a computer specialist who ... See full summary »

Director:

Jonathan Kaufer

Writers:

David Gilman (screenplay), David Gilman (play)

Stars:

David Strathairn, Bonnie Bedelia, Saul Rubinek

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
David Strathairn	...	Wes Westlund
Bonnie Bedelia	...	Nancy Westlund
Saul Rubinek	...	Matt Carroll
Caroleen Feeney	...	Kim Matthews
Julie Harris	...	Professor Harper
Robin Poley	...	First Musicologist
Daniel Koch	...	Second Musicologist
Steve Forbert	...	Coffeehouse Troubadour

Storyline

Wes and Nancy are a married academics couple. One day they host Nancy's long-ago lover Matt and his current sexy girlfriend Kim. Matt is a musician and Kim is a computer specialist who helped Matt to make some discovery in his science. Wes suspects Kim of stealing 50 dollars from him and that starts tension, intrigues, mistrust.

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Plot Keywords:

theft | suspicion | intrigue | jealousy | house guest | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and sexuality

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 October 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Intrigas em Família

Company Credits

Production Co:

Davis Entertainment Classics, Skyline Entertainment Partners, Wavecrest

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The teacup held by Professor Harper (Julie Harris) is antique American china made by Stetson called American Beauty. The china was originally sold in grocery stores for pennies a piece, but is now quite valuable.

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Quotes

Nancy Westlund: The only thing disturbing the placid surface of my life is you.

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Connections

Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Holy Man/Bad Manners/One Tough Cop/The Mighty/The Imposter (1998)

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Soundtracks

""El Gobernador"
Traditional
Performed by George Cordoba

User Reviews

Pretentious Trash

A woman who is a tenured professor at Harvard invites an old boyfriend to her home. He brings along an ill-mannered (hence the title) girlfriend who, moreover, the woman's husband thinks stole $50 from his wallet. That's the setup, and from there it deteriorates. Why does the woman not ask her guests to leave? No reason is even suggested. If you can swallow that, perhaps you can enjoy the rest of the movie, though there isn't much to it except more bad manners and suspicions and accusations and, notwithstanding the blurbs on the videocassette box, precious little wit. Oh, yes, you get to hear the girl talk dirty.

There is also the putative pleasure of seeing that the rich (the Cambridge mansion where the movie takes place is worth a fortune in today's real estate market - right now you can take advantage of a pre-construction offer and purchase a studio apartment in Central Square for $360,000), and the highly respected, handle their personal affairs as poorly as the rest of us. If you changed the characters' professions, if the Harvard professor were a waitress, and her former boyfriend was in town not to deliver a musicology lecture but to compete in a bowling tournament, and if the setting were a 2-bedroom apartment in Queens, I strongly suspect the critics would pan the movie as just a lot of uninteresting and, yes, ill-mannered conversation where nothing happens.

But the professor is not a waitress, she is a tenured member of the Harvard faculty. No one, certainly no woman, achieves that distinction by being an ineffectual wimp. Yet no intelligent, forceful person would put up with this invasion of her home, and even attack on her marriage - she would ask her guests to leave (there's plenty of nice hotels in Cambridge).