Overrated Screenplay

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2011)

Robert Townsend is an overpaid, overrated, writer. Jack Nicholson was good and so was John Houston. Fay Dunaway was OK (she was terrific when she got slapped). The story is twisted so much so the viewer could write his own story as it happens in the movie. The ending was altered by Polanski who is another overrated director (see Barry Levinson's direction of "Bugsy") The ending was the anticlimax and the worst ending of any movie. In the '70s, directors like Coppola and Scorsese had not made their mark and Polanksi was the one of the new kid on the block who had connections (like Evans and Nicholson),and was known as a radical director for movie like "Rosemarys Baby". He was embraced instantly by his cronies. These days directors like Polanski are dime a dozen and he won't make a dent in Hollywood. Its obvious that he likes stories that were weird, or socio-pathic and most of his films had shock value. With advent of TV sitcoms this value is lost to the audience. The movie is worth watching once, not ten times! like Robert Evens claims he watched it (see special features on DVD). Few scenes and few lines of dialog stand out but overall it is another good film not a great film like we are led to believe.