This probably would have been better in black and white, like Bogdanovich (said he) wanted... ditto with younger actors in the leads like John Ritter and Jeff Bridges because it would've given a greater sense of young people trying to make it, whereas Burt Reynolds and Ryan O'Neal (both of whom are fine by the way) seem like they've been around a while. Cybil Shepherd would've been better than Jane Hitchcock who isn't that great.
But even that wouldn't have fixed other issues with the film... it's overlong running time, the fact it spans years, all the endless zappy talk that isn't particularly witty (a hall mark of Bogdanovich written dialogue), characters falling in love at the drop of a hat (ditto). The Tatum O'Neal part seems shoehorned in to recapture some Paper Moon magic... really this part needed to be played by a grown up who could be a rival to Jane Hitchcock. The John Ritter part seems shoe horned in to give Ritter a role... Stella Stevens at least winds up with Brian Keith at the end but Ritter doesn't get a subplot. Neither does Tatum O'Neal.
Every now and then the film captures a bit of magic that it is striving for but too often it never seems to click. It's played by a comedy then there's this dramatic stuff thrown in - I think we're meant to care more about the O'Neal-Reynolds-Hitchcock love triangle (a Last Picture Show throwback) more than we do. Maybe that was me (though I doubt it, it wasn't a hit).
This film isn't a disgrace it's just frustrating because it doesn't quite work and it should have.
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