Town and Country
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Movie Reviews of Town and Country
Movie Review: Having it all to having to start from stratch
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie is perfect for the perfect couple. When you figure out that your marrige of 25 years is on the rocks what do you do? Well Ellie nows what to do, try to resolve it. After embarrissing her in front of everyone and everyone knows about his cheating. So they finally get a divorce when Potter finally realizes let he had lost his only true love. So know he has to work on getting it back one step at a time.Movie Review: FUNNY
Summary: 3 Stars
Even though this wasnt a great movie, it was extremely funny. I would rate this movie a 10 by any means but for a good laugh i would highly recommend it.Movie Review: Hidden Feature
Summary: 3 Stars
1 hidden feature on this dvdPush up until the high-light bar is gone, then push enter.
Movie Review: Goldie & Warren reunite but this is no Shampoo
Summary: 2 Stars
Town & Country echoes one of Beatty's best films, Shampoo. But where that film was brave, this film is cowardly. Shampoo revolved around an aging Casanova who slept with any woman he could. And in the end, he paid the price. The honest look at Beatty's character George was unflinching, we saw all the warts. We didn't approve of the hurt he inflicted, but we came close to understanding why he acted the way he did. And in the end, George was evaluated by his own actions. Town & Country demonstrates why Hollywood so often fails when it attempts to tackle anything larger than a comic book or a computer game. Few writers even try to tell the truth and Buck Henry & Michael Laughlin aren't writing a script here, they're sketching in the sort of sneering, superficial theme that's been bombing at the box office since Burt Reynolds starred in The Man Who Loved Women.
Warren Beatty's a married man this time out, to Diane Keaton. It's many years past Shampoo or Bonnie & Clyde and those years show. But somehow he's still catnip to assorted females (Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Nastassja Kinski and Andie MacDowell).
Is it his winning personality? His clever jokes? Can't be, they don't exist. Maybe it's the fact that he looks at every woman like she's a piece of meat? Is he that great in bed? Judging by the one scene we see, Goldie's doing all the work and he's just lying there.
And after all the infidelities in his marriage to Keaton, the narration and the last scene leave us with the impression that their relationship will return . . . to "normal?" Why is that? Call it the Cruise Can't Lose principal for those with shorter memories. He's the leading man. Don't look for insight into the plot turns, they exist only to celebrate his leading man status.
Maybe if someone (writer, director, producer, star, studio -- all of them?) wasn't so convinced he was likeable, a little honesty could have been tossed into this film. For it to work, you have to see that Beatty's a misogynist. The plot adds up to that. The film celebrates that (a reviewer cited the "confusing" scene where Beatty, son Josh Hartnett and the daughter's lover gather in the kitchen for a late night snack and seemingly bond in some insignificant way -- they're bonding over what "studs" they are -- only the film doesn't have the guts to carry it off -- or maybe the makers just don't get that's what's going on?).
This is the story of a one time pretty boy Casanova, now long past his prime. He's bored in a long term marriage. He cheats. And cheats. And then when his wife catches on to his cheating, he realizes he wants his marriage. Okay, got the storyline? Who did they think the audience for this film was? Cheating husbands?
To be funny, this film needs to laugh at Beatty, not fawn over him. But the makers of the film don't seem to realize that. In Shampoo, Beatty played a character (unmarried, true) who behaved similarly and the reason it worked was because it was honest about the character's motives. It didn't gloss over it or try to give George (Beatty's character) a happy ending -- and the honesty, as well as Beatty not getting to have it all, is the reason we cared in that film.
That Beatty, who's associated with films that broke down Hollywood fluff (i.e. Bonnie & Clyde, Shampoo, etc.), would participate in this recycled, nostalgic garbage is shocking. To say he's playing it safe gives the film far too much credit. It's not safe, it's condescending.
The actresses try to play the roles, some succeed due to their talent. Goldie succeeds the most and is the only first rate thing about this film. Perhaps she's still smarting over not getting to play Julie Christie's role in Shampoo (as she wanted to) but she pours everything she has into the role of Mona (which is an echo of Christie's Jackie in many ways -- though Hawn gives the character more drive and certainly more warts). Goldie's hilarious and when she's offscreen the movie just lies flat.
Mona's the bad woman. The woman who would stab her own best friend in the back by sleeping with said friend's husband. Note to Beatty, Mona does unlikeable things but the honesty of the character doesn't make you hate Goldie. Ellie's the good wife (the kind of part that Hawn played in Shampoo when she played Beatty's lover Jill) who suffers and suffers so nobly. Keaton's unique way with syntax and delivery brighten up this role a little but she's wasted in it. Alex is a daffy, free spirit. And at twenty-two years younger, of course Kinski paired with Beatty makes perfect sense (that's sarcasm). Then we have Andie MacDowell in the most insulting role -- Daddy's little girl. MacDowell has the talent to turn this into a laugh-fest but for that to happen, we need the character to have a moment, at least one. None of the female characters (including Jenna Elfman's) are written, they're sketched. Hawn's anger and rage seem more of an acting choice (and a good one -- they flesh out an otherwise one-note character), but even with all she's bringing to the film, the makers don't care one bit about Mona.
All the women exist to testify to Beatty's likeability (and apparently his potency). A funny film could have been made exploring characters like these women or a funny film could have been made about how pathetic Beatty's character truly is. But apparently to do either of those things would have risked Beatty's likeability. The deer-lost-in-the-headlights innocence got old a long time ago, but Beatty seems determined to continue playing tallish-boys. Some day, maybe he'll make a honest movie that explores the sickness of that.
Movie Review: All-star shambles wastes talent in all departments
Summary: 2 Stars
If taken at face value, you'd expect TOWN AND COUNTRY to be an excellent movie: The script is written by Buck Henry, (co-creator with Mel Brooks of the classic TV comedy GET SMART), directed by Peter Chelsom who made the vastly underappreciated THE MIGHTY and featuring an all-star cast including Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Jenna Elfman, Nastassja Kinski, Andie MacDowell and Charlton Heston. You'd think TOWN AND COUNTRY would be pretty special, right? Wrong.As soon as you read studio press hailing this as FIRST WIVES CLUB (which starred Keaton and Hawn) meets ANNIE HALL (which also starred Keaton), you just know you're not getting anything new.
Anyway the plot: Porter Stoddard (Beatty) has been happily married to Ellie (Keaton) for a quarter century. But when his best friend Griffin (Garry Shandling) tells him about an affair he had and how great it was; Porter decides to give it a go- by cheating on no less than four women at the same time. These include Mona (Goldie Hawn- still attractive, but obviously uses a double for her sex scene) sexy cellist Alex (Kinski) who plays music in the nude, as well as a ski-er (Andie MacDowell) and a shop owner (Jenna Elfman). Yep, so in a sledgehammer-subtle dig at his wild past, Clyde Barrow himself; toupe clad and wrinkly, every elderly spinster's fantasy man; plays a womaniser! Didn't see that one coming. Another surprise is Charlton Heston's role as MacDowell's dad who just happens to be ... a gun nut. No subtle nuances present in this movie.
TOWN AND COUNTRY veers uneasily between light romantic comedy and screwball farce and doesn't really suceed as either. When will film makers realize an all-star cast is usually a recipe for critical and box office disaster? It all starts with the STORY, people
In summation TOWN AND COUNTRY isn't a total failure, but its more a lumbering actors' showcase than the light entertainment you'd expect. Given the talent involved this is a huge disappointment. I was expecting better from Beatty after his brilliant satire BULWORTH. Watch that instead. And Chelsom should stop trying to be Robert Altman- 90% of the time HIS all-star efforts are garbage- and get back to what he's good at.