More Short Reviews

Music Box

Costa-Gavras is a director of some repute who I have to admit I'd not heard of until recently. He is best known for directing politically charged films, including Z and Missing, both of which won Oscars and were nominated for multiple awards. I rented Missing recently largely because Jack Lemmon starred and received an Oscar nomination for his work in it. The film itself was nominated for Best Picture and obviously was well received at the time. I found it rather dull and Lemmon, and indeed fellow nominee Sissy Spacek, have done much better work elsewhere.

The same can be said in discussing Music Box. Jessica Lange was the recipient of an Oscar nominee for her work in this but it really isn't award worthy. She plays a lawyer whose father is accused of war crimes, and takes on the case to defend him only to learn things aren't as straight forward as they appear. Lange is fine, she breaks down in tears at one point and fights with her father but at no time did I think Lange was doing something extraordinary. Perhaps her character just wasn't interesting enough. Perhaps she hasn't the screen presence needed. Perhaps the story just wasn't gripping enough. Whatever the reason, Music Box didn't hit the right notes. C+

Love Story

According to some reports, and adjusting for inflation, Love Story is one of the highest grossing films of all time. Okay it's not in the league of Star Wars or Gone With the Wind. I'm talking top 40 rather than top 5, but even so, being amongst the top 40 highest grossing films of all time is quite something, especially when the movie was shot for just $2 million. For that sort of budget, being in the top 40 grossing films of the year would have probably been quite an achievement, but this is truly outstanding. The film was a bit of a phenomenon, as well as the incredible box office gross, it went on to secure multiple Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Actor and Actress. Incredible. So surely the film is totally captivating? Not even close.

Maybe it's aged badly. Maybe it just wasn't that good in the first place. Maybe I'm a cynical, hard to please bastard. Or maybe spending 90 ultra dialogue-heavy minutes with two infuriating, totally unrealistic individuals who have about as much charm as a particularly uncharming traffic warden just isn't for everyone. The leads, Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw went on to have startlingly dreadful careers for two Oscar nominated newcomers. O'Neal has starred in nothing of note and racked up an impressive 6 Razzie nominations since, which I think is rather more reflective of the quality of work in Love Story than an Oscar nomination. A bit unfair perhaps, because his performance is certainly not awful, but it is an insult to anyone who's been nominated for an Oscar to see a performance of such blandness being nominated alongside them. MacGraw's post Love Story career is even worse than O'Neal's, although she doesn't have the Razzie noms to boast of. A 14 episode stint on Dynasty is just about the highlight. 1970 must have been a poor year at the movies for such banality to find itself grossing over $100 million and scoring Oscar nominations in 7 categories.

If you want a plot summary, two irritating college students fall in love, spend some time being ungrateful, churlish and rude to his parents, get married before "tragedy" befalls them. It's described as one of the greatest "weepies" of all time. You can probably guess what happens. I lasted 50 minutes then watched the rest on fast forward, playing the DVD only when the great Ray Milland was on screen. D