Loving

How many films from the late 1960s on into the 1970s asked us to sympathize or at least identify with a middle aged white guy who, despite having a beautiful, loving wife and family just couldn't keep his pants zipped? Sometimes these protagonists cum antiheroes also had successful careers.  But it was all just never enough.  It reflected (and I'm sure, reflects) real life.  It was a man's world.  Films about women in such a role seemed fewer and far between.   Truthfully, my sympathies are lacking for either gender.  One of the few things for which I have a conservative point of view is fidelity.  Movies often tend to provide some apologia for the cheating spouse.

1970's LOVING is a refreshingly blunt, unsentimental depiction of said male angst.   Perhaps Brooks Wilson (George Segal) never really wanted a wife and kids.  Maybe he just wanted to create art and bed younger women.  Or maybe he likes the thrill of having an affair.  Or affairs, as he is involved not only with his glum secretary Grace (Janis Young) but also his friend's feisty wife Nelly (Nancie Phillips).  Maybe he did all the "right things" in a bid for legitimacy in the eyes of society.  Brooks' wife Selma (Eva Marie Saint) is beautiful and supportive, and quite patient.  It's usually left to her to manage their two young, often shrieking daughters. 

 

Brooks is a commercial artist who is growing disenchanted with the compromises to his art his clients demand.  He is chasing a sizable account from a trucking company, which will be lucrative but not artistically satisfying.  There's an ongoing battle with an obnoxious neighbor.  His wife is pressing for a bigger home.  Is it any wonder that Brooks is a raging alcoholic?

Don Devlin's screenplay deftly captures the time period and its attitudes,  its morality (or lack of).  That it takes place in Connecticut and features a neighborhood party during which infidelities run rampant will invite comparison to THE ICE STORM, which this film must've inspired.  Director Irvin Kershner has a real sense of the day to day of these frustrated characters.  He proves himself an "actor's director" here, particularly during a scene which an older, divorcing couple show the Wilsons their home.   Diana Douglas and Ed Crowley give us some of the most convincing, natural acting I've seen.   Also among the interesting cast are Sterling Hayden porting an Abraham Lincoln beard and future studio honcho Sherry Lansing. 

Segal is so appealing that we almost root for his loutsome Everyman.  It makes watching LOVING a conflicting experience, as stories such as this should be.  Gordon Willis' photography is gorgeous, perfectly capturing this fragile world of insufferable discussions about art and martini lunches.  The film transforms into absurdist comedy in the third act, ending somewhat abruptly, but realistically.  I'll bet it prompted some heated discussions at Katz's Deli post showtime.