It's a tribute to Warren Beatty's appeal to studio execs that he got this green lit at $50 million and to his ability as a procrastinator to get the cost up to $100 million. No stunts, present day setting, no action, a trifle about adulterous middle aged people. It's a French style comedy that amazingly cost so, so much money.
Beatty, to be fair, is quite animated, doing double takes and running around and dressing in a polar bear outfit. He seems to be more comfortable here than in Love Affair because the script has made more allowance for his age - he ha grown children (one of them Josh Hartnett) and he's married (Diane Keaton).
He's irresistible to the ladies still - Natassa Kinski is a cellist who plays nude for him, Goldie Hawn is the cuckolded wife of his best friend (Gary Shandling), Andie McDowell is an eccentric belle, Jenna Elfman is into him.
Maybe one star is too harsh - it's not awful. At least not the first half. It's pleasantly shot. There's good actors. I smiled once or twice. Charlton Heston has fun as McDowell's nutty dad.
I think I was just offended so much money was spent on it. Maybe that's unfair, to review the budget rather than the film, but it's how I feel.
Also a lot of it is lame. The action takes place over months. It's not a nice, tight farce. The second half gets wonkier and wonkier and it finally ends.
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