Overall a good but unexpected plot

Rating: 7/10 (17 September 2010)

The theme of this movie is coming-of-age, making mistakes, paying for the mistake, and ultimately doing what you want in the end. The main plot of this story is the coming of age of a recent college graduate that you would have expected to have already had the happen in his life earlier, but you find that Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is shy, backward, and naive. The major character in the film is Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) who seduces Ben who is initially mortified and confused but after literally months of "meeting" with her actually wishes to have intellectual conversations with her that backfire. Eventually, his father convinces him to take Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross) out on a date which for him is humiliating because he's sleeping with her mother and dating her was forbidden by Mrs. Robinson.
After the first date however, Ben realizes he really likes Elaine and wants to continue dating her. However, as soon as Elaine finds out about Ben and her mother she breaks off the relationship and returns to college. After a short amount of time Ben follows her up to Berkeley and begins pursuing her. If you don't like "stalker" kind of films, you may not like this movie, even though it's not a violent stalking, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Eventually things all work out but the end of the movie truly is priceless. Elaine and Ben are happy and smiling but after a few seconds they both look forward and it's almost as if it dawns on them what they have done.
I have heard about this movie forever, and I really was surprised even disappointed at the plot but I did really enjoy the acting. Anne Bancroft is incredible and Dustin Hoffman is great as a quirky young man. The soundtrack is dated and the use and reuse of the same song over and over (Simon and Garfunkel soundtracks) did drag but if you like movies that are funny, dramatic, romantic, and crazy all the way through with editing and camera work then you'll enjoy it. The editing is used to give vision to the confusion and absolute panic Ben feels when Mrs. Robinson first seduces him after all we all know "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?"
If you like May-December "romances", with older-woman, younger man plots this will be an attraction to you as well but it is sometimes distasteful and in fact very forward for the time. There really hasn't been another movie to compare it to except maybe Goodbye Again or In the Bedroom but neither offer the complication of the mother-daughter-man (except maybe Rated X films which are plot less).