This film was a flop at the time - not surprisingly, since it's leads are two old people and it ends unhappily - but has come to be regarded as a classic. The plot is about an old married couple who are unable to afford living in their house any longer; they split up for three months while they figure out what’s going to happen next. But even though they’ve got five kids, none of them want to take them in.
Director Leo McCarey is on the side of the parents but is careful to point out that they can be annoying. Mum interrupts a bridge game (which her daughter in law uses to raise money) with an incessant phone call, and has to share the bedroom with her boy crazy granddaughter. Even during the “final day together” sequence, when strangers chat to them, they’re still a pretty boring pair, nattering on; yes the restaurant managers and such are nice to them, but people like that are nice to paying customers. Still, they love each other and it's heartbreaking to see them torn apart.
It’s frustrating that the couple can’t be a bit smarter and think about a way they could live together (what about that offer to act as caretakers for a cottage?). The elderly make up on the lead actors is a little distracting at times. And there's some corny moments. But it's full of warmth, humour and great sadness. And truth. You can't say something like this wouldn't happen - parents mistakenly thinking their children will look after them, children trying to do the right thing but ultimately looking after their own families, old people going along with a tragic decision because they don't want to make waves, parents using their mother in law as a convenient scape goat for their own dodgy parenting.
Many memorable scenes - the mother asking her son if she can go live in an old person’s home (the son is played by Thomas Mitchell - it's weird seeing him having parents on screen), the grand-daughter explaining how she wants to party, the awkward bridge game interruption. Mots of all is the emotionally devastating ending where the husband and wife say goodbye forever at the train station. It gets you in the gut.
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