Director: Melvin Frank
Cast: George Segal, Glenda Jackson, Paul Sorvino, Hildegard Neil
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Running time: 106 mins. 1973
Rating:★★★
Being free and easy proves neither free nor easy for married Steve ( George Segal) and divorced Vickie ( Glenda Jackson) when they fall in love. At his harried best teetering between two households, Segal plays sometimes sly, sometimes fumbling Steve. As Vickie, Jackson slings verbal jabs and hotel furnishings with equal glee.
A Seurat-like cinematography is an interesting way to lay the stage for these to characters to first meet. A beautiful and tranquil connection on the surface, but taking a closer glance, one will notice the dots of problems that make up the surface that are bound to create many obstacles and tension. How much will one go to have "no-strings-attach" sex, especially when one of the parties involved is still married? Steve has definitely met his match, his confidence wavers and his power is over thrown. Vickie is a no nonsense, sultry, and a wee bit stuck up woman, who has unknowingly met her intellectual match. Her standards of life are broken by a man who isn't going to put up with those standards all the time.
Both George Segal and Glenda Jackson have a magnificent comedic dynamic. You can't wait to witness how the one will get under the other's skin, while all the while hoping they will fall in love, in true cinematic tradition. This film is one example, where predictability is welcome when it's done well (script, the actors casted, classic snappily-quick-witty comedy, editing, cinematography). Lastly, my weakness for sixties/seventies architecture, interiors, and fashion are all incapsolated in one film, how fantastic!
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