The Prince of Tides
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Blythe Danner, George Carlin, Maggie Collier, Nancy Moore Atchison, Tiffany Jean DavisPrimary Contributor: Nick Nolte
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 132 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-11-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of The Prince of Tides
Movie Review: It's all about presentation, and this film is presented in the worst possible way...
Summary: 2 Stars
I can't help but wonder how good this film may have been had it had another director, maybe one more attentive to the nature of the story. Instead, actress/singer/director Barbara Streisand helms this picture, and she does a lot more damage than good. Instead of creating a film that is rooted in raw emotion and heartbreaking tragedy she turns this film into a longwinded soap opera with over-the-top acting and `romance novel' style dialog. In fact, the last quarter of the film is so ridiculous that I seriously wanted to vomit amidst all the saccharine facileness.
The film tells the story of Tom Wingo, a southern `good ol' boy' who is troubled by a dark family secret, a secret that has pushed his sister to attempt suicide. While she lies in a hospital room, Tom ventures to New York and meets his sister's psychiatrist Susan. Tom is apposed to his sister seeing a shrink, but the more he sees Susan the more he begins to open up, about his life, his wife, his mother and eventually uncovering the family secret that has haunted him for so many years.
The idea behind the film is a good one in my opinion (I have not read the book, although I don't hear good things about it so I don't think I will) but the handling of the material really sidelines the film in my opinion. Instead of taking a raw and emotional approach to the film, the soap operaish delivery makes light of the tragedy surrounding the film and ultimately turns the serious subject of abuse, suicide and murder into a joke. All of this weighty material is more or less just a backdrop for Tom and Susan to fall in love and in the end the film makes their relationship the weightiest subject; expecting the audience to swell up with tears at the prospect of them having to leave one another as apposed to the audience being emotionally responsive to the turmoil boiling within Tom's past.
The acting doesn't really help the matter.
I am not a fan of Nick Nolte. I never have been and never will be. He has really only delivered a few (countable on one hand) good performances, and this is not one of them. His over-the-top delivery of Tom's emotions is comical to say the least. He has one good scene, when he finally breaks down and exposes his past. It's the only scene where his emotions seem real, and it's the only respectable `scene' in the film (which ends up getting ruined by the overly sentimental `cry in my bosom' closing). Streisand is better than Nolte, but too clich?d. The only good acting comes from the supporting cast, notably Blythe Danner (who is sorely underused) and Kate Nelligan (who received an Oscar nomination for her performance). They are not enough to save the film, but they at least prove to add some interest to their scenes.
In the end I can honestly say that `The Prince of Tides' is a missed opportunity, which I think is what makes the sting of the films failure hurt all the more. It could have been so deep and haunting but instead comes off vapid and hollow.
Summary of The Prince of Tides
Barbra Streisand's best film as a director is helped enormously by one of Nick Nolte's finest performances. Nolte plays a football coach who is estranged from his wife (Blythe Danner) and who enters into an affair with the psychiatrist (Streisand) of his suicidal sister (Melinda Dillon). Streisand is acceptable in her star turn, but behind the camera she paces the story very well and provides lots of room for Nolte to inhabit his burdened but likable character. George Carlin is a bit token as a gay New Yorker, although Jason Gould (Streisand's son) is good as a struggling teen in desperate need of a father figure. The whole film is worth watching just to see a great moment near the end where Nolte stands on a street, a bit slump-shouldered and wearing a look of sad resolve. It's great acting at its most minimal. --Tom KeoghDrama DVD Video
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