An Adolescent Film

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2003)

This film must be one of the most over-rated films of all time. To begin with it treats the Anne Bancroft character like sh*t. She's neurotic and an alcoholic and she has a voice imposed upon her that has hardly any range at all. This is not her fault, as she is usually an excellent actress, but if more dimension was put into her reactions it would make her a rounded figure, and then we might begin to sympathise with her. In 1965 this would certainly not have been a politically correct ting to do. To make an older woman psychologically attractive would have upset Middle America far too much.
I read one of the reviews here that said the film was rushed. This is an understatement. Nobody seems to have time to consider what they're doping or why they're doing it. It titillates, but it doesn't have the courage to deliver the depth of believable relationships. One could blame the era it was made in, but this would be an injustice to the films of European directors who had quite ably explored this kind of territory with more maturity.
In my opinion it is an adolescent film for the adolescent minded and should be dragged off its complacent pedestal.
The music is as equally dated and terrible.