It's not funny and it's not such a tradgedy either

Rating: 7/10 (10 February 2020)

I couldn't take my eyes off of Anne Bancroft in the role of Mrs. Robinson. But something made me feel ill. It wasn't the nasty character of Mrs Robinson's behavior that made me feel ill. I kind of ENJOYED that. It was having Simon and Garfunkle that made me feel ill. Their attempts at singing and playing musical instruments, and the nursery-rhyme nonsense-lyrics that they made up especially for the movie - that weren't especially relevant to the move - the lyrics that made no sense at all - those are what made me feel ill.
Even better than Anne Bancroft nasty behavior is Norman Fell's depiction of a nasty landlord. Here, a few years before he does a limpid, watered down version of this role in Three's Company, he depicts a wonderfully obnoxious landlord to perfection.God bless Norman Fell, he brings some class to this otherwise quite bland movie. I didn't find him quite as sexy as Anne Bancroft but perhaps you might. Who knows. In any even, it doesn't matter. His performance was juicy.
Dustin Hoffman does an indecisive interpretation of Ben, an indecisive young man. He hasn't figured out what to do with his life; he hasn't figured out what to do with his pedookie either. His "sex-interest" is Mrs. Robinson; his "love-interest" is Mrs. Robinsons daughter Elaine. Elaine is just a love-object, she is not an actual character. She is just a one-dimensional objet for Ben to stalk. Does Ben have any interest in having sex with her or does he just kind of have warm feelings for her and like being around her? Maybe he just has a stalking instinct? I think that's it. The writers haven't decided. I don't care.