1990 Family Drama
From Miramax
Directed by James Ivory
Starring
Paul Newman
Joanne Woodward
Blythe Danner
Kyra Sedgwick
Robert Sean Leonard
Margaret Welsh
Simon Callow
Saundra McClain
Austin Pendleton
I'm not calling this a guilty pleasure because I don't feel a whisper of guilt about liking it. But I frame it this way because it is not a film for the masses and there are parts that clearly don't work.
Originally I saw it because it starred Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman (in the last of their 10 big-screen appearances together) and I never missed any of his movies. It is also about the family unit and I feel quite an attachment to such films.
The screenplay is based on two novels by Evan S. Connell, Mrs. Bridge, published in 1959, and Mr. Bridge, published 10 years later. Connell was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, which is also the setting for the film. It is about his parents and family life.
The screenplay is adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, longtime collaborator of director James Ivory and his producing partner Ismail Merchant.
The bittersweet story opens in the early 1930s and concerns an upper-class lawyer, his obedient wife and their three independent children. The couple is greatly concerned with societal expectations and with raising their children within those boundaries. They, however, seem sadly incapable of mastering the emotional distance within the family.
Walter Bridge (Newman), trying awfully hard to look like Harry Truman with his pinched lips, wire-rim glasses and parted gray hair, is emotionally barren, distant, stubborn, humorless, fussy, cranky and depressed. He makes fun of his wife's women friends, finding them vacuous and without purpose. He is a conservative socially and politically and fervently anti-communist.
He has no charm and no one would call him Mr. Warmth. He throws himself into his work. At home he is tyrannical but not in the usual, obvious way. He's soft-spoken but highly critical of his wife, children, neighbors and friends.
His one brush with genuine kindness comes with helping out the family maid, Harriet (McClain) when her husband is arrested.
India Bridge (Woodward), like her husband, is fussy, depressed and conservative. A friend asks her why she's conservative. She says apologetically that she hasn't kept up so she follows Walter's dictates. India tells Walter she wants a divorce which stems from the lack of affection he gives her. It is most telling and heart-breaking that she asks him if he will tell her he loves her. She accuses Walter of not caring about her or their children. She enjoys her women friends and an art class she takes. Her instructor advises her to paint with more aggression.
India tends to quickly put a bandage on everything that is unpleasant to her. She chatters endlessly about inane things, always hoping to keep up a cheerful front no matter who she's dealing with. She is vulnerable, overcompensating, desperate and sad and the ultimate victim.
The screenplay offers up a series of vignettes, mostly dealing with events in the lives of the three children and of course, the parents reactions to them. Walter grandly announces at one point that he is disappointed in them because they take no interest in learning the family's history.
Daughter Ruth (Sedgwick) angers her old man when she blithely announces she is off to New York to become an actress. He is further angered when he is not able to talk any sense into her.
In another scene, Walter is watching out his second-story as Ruth sunbathes. He seems to get more excited as she loosens her top. The scene seemed a little out-of-place to me, perhaps a little gratuitous. Would Walter have really done such a thing?
Both parents are upset when second daughter Carolyn (Welsh) advises she is going to get married and it seems that upsetting them is part of her plan. They don't know the intended groom but don't like that he is the son of a plumber and unemployed. There is a scene in Walter's office between him and the intended bridegroom that is full of rancor.
Before long son Douglas (Leonard) tells his father that he is joining the Army Air Corps. Walter thinks he should wait until he's drafted and is distressed when Douglas, like his sisters before him, will not listen. Douglas also has a scene with his mother where she reaches out to him with affection and he cannot bring himself to do the same. Sadly like father, like son.
My favorite scene involves Mr. and Mrs. Bridge when they sit across the table from one another in a glass-enclosed dining room at the local country club. There is a tornado brewing outside and all other diners and staff have left. The Bridges have also been encouraged to leave but despite electricity flickering on and off, Walter stays put and insists India do the same. For 20 years I've been telling you how things will or will not work out. Have I ever been proven wrong? Suddenly the storm passes and the electricity restored. It says a great deal about their relationship.
It seemed an icy, joyless life for everyone but I still found it to be a fascinating study of emotional repression. I would have enjoyed some backstory on the couple. Knowing why people are the way they are opens up more understanding and binds a story together. Critics carped at Ivory for not being able to show the couple's icy, joyless life without making an icy, joyless film.
Some would not like the film, I expect, because there's not a pinch of action. I didn't mind that but I didn't care for the ending because it just ends. There were several other possibilities more suitable and far more satisfying.
I saw this because of the Newmans and they are the best thing about it. Watching these pros play off one another has always been pure joy for me. Woodward has played repressed characters before and does it very well. She received an Oscar nomination for playing India Bridge and was nominated or won a host of other awards for it.
I am convinced this role stands alone in Newman's canon of work. Playing a repressed, unemotional, quiet character is not the type Newman is given to playing. None of the actor's standard acting business is displayed here. He obviously dug deeper. It is one of my favorite Newman roles. The diehard, outspoken liberal should have gotten some honor simply for playing a conservative.
Woodward first came across the work years earlier when she read Mrs. Bridge. She loved it and allowed herself to think about purchasing it for a screenplay. She decided she was too young to play India but she wondered if Newman might direct.
Then Woodward met Ivory a short time after she saw his A Room with a View, which enthralled her. She asked him to read the books (by then Mr. Bridge had been published) and he, too, was captivated. Ivory got Merchant involved and Jhabvala as well and the rights to the novels were purchased.
By now Woodward considered herself to be old enough to play the unhappy Mrs. Bridge and it didn't take a lot for her to convince Newman. For starters, they loved working together. They understood one another so well and acting together for them was like using shorthand. It came pretty easily.
Newman realized it was a role he did not usually play but he felt a good stretch was what was needed. And as always he just felt better spending all day, every day with Woodward. It would be fun. They didn't expect it would do well financially but they didn't care all that much because they both loved these characters. They knew the film tried hard to be an art house film and they are usually not big earners.
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| Director Ivory and his star |
I absolutely loved the look here. Bravo to set decoration, art direction, production design, costumes, hair, makeup. I was certainly transported to the 1930s.
Location work in Kansas City was extensive. Ivory loved his period details and everything had to be just right. He raided the homes of Connell family members for items to decorate the sets.
The film is not for everyone nor is it perfect in its execution. But if, like me, family dramas turn you on and if, by chance, you are fond of the Newmans, there's something here for you to like.
Check out the trailer:
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