Not Quite The Classic It's Claimed To Be

Rating: 6/10 (1 August 2006)

I recently read an interview with Roger Ebert in which he was asked if there were any films he had changed his opinion on over the years. He named The Graduate as a film he didn't like nearly as much as he used to. I think that says a lot about The Graduate.
It is an intentionally comedic drama about a recent college graduate (Dustin Hoffman) who returns home and sinks himself into a comfortable rut involving nightly hotel rendezvous' with an attractive older woman (Anne Bancroft), but when her daughter, who is much closer to his age, returns home, he falls for her, and a chaotic mess of twisted emotions ensues.
The film plays out like a teenager's wet dream. Hoffman's character has rich parents, almost no responsibility, and nightly sex with no strings attached. But director Mike Nichols tries to present it in such a way that Hoffman's character is bored out of his mind  typical youth. This section of the film is one of the best depictions of the emptiness and anxiety of casual sex that I have ever seen. It is wonderfully heightened by the excellent accompanying Simon & Garfunkel.
However, the film loses a lot of steam when the daughter enters the picture. We are supposed to believe that Hoffman's character falls in love with her, but I must admit that I felt no real connection between the characters and no real chemistry between the actors. It felt like the writer just needed to throw in something to cause some conflict in the story, so he simply threw in an underdeveloped relationship with the daughter. The whole thing seems to be a cheap attempt at depth, but it just comes off as shallow.
And then we come to the film's often-parodied ending in which Hoffman's character breaks up the daughter's wedding and runs away with her. I found the whole thing to be rather underwhelming. There is no real love between these characters  they're just a couple of young people being compulsive.
I also must say that I didn't think the comedy element of the film worked very well at all. It just wasn't very funny, and I don't see why it was necessary.
However, the film does have strength in Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, who are both simply wonderful here. The juxtaposition of their characters alone is fascinating enough  a young, naïve man who yearns for a meaningful relationship, but can't resist his hormonal urges, and a hardened, somewhat bitter older woman who simply wants to cut out the arbitrary, for lack of a better term, bullshit and get to the carnality. But Hoffman and Bancroft inject a genuine life into these characters that no one else could have. All the Simon & Garfunkel was a big plus for me, as well.
Overall, The Graduate has the potential to be an introspective drama about the emptiness of sex and the confliction of attraction, but it is squandered on a juvenile and rushed romantic twist.