Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

Plot synopsis:
Walter and India Bridge are a married couple in late middle age living in Kansas City during the 1930s. Because he is a successful lawyer, they live relatively well, and India enjoys the freedoms of being a socialite housewife with grown kids.India does lament to Walter that he does not really know her, and he is conflicted about their oldest daughter Ruth becoming sexually active. One night he catches her making love on the living room floor, and thereafter he relents to let her move to New York City, for which he will provide her $1,000.The film proceeds through a series of other episodes in their lives that have little evident consequence. For instance, their son Doug becomes an Eagle Scout, and noticeably does not thank his mother at the ceremony. Thereafter, nothing is mentioned about this painfully awkward rebuke.Walter and India ride out a severe storm in a restaurant, during which he tells her of his plan to travel to Europe together. When they go on the trip, they see a lot of beautiful artwork, and they go to arousing can can shows that make Walter rather passionate toward India. Alas, after he buys her a reproduction of a painting she loves, the Nazis invade Poland and the war begins.Back at home one day later, India discovers a pin-up girly magazine in Dougs room. In response, she quietly gives him an old marriage manual, saying nothing.One day the Bridges daughter Carolyn tells Walter that she is engaged to a local man. Walter is furiously resistant, but later the fiancé makes quite a forceful appeal to Walter and he relents, allowing the wedding to take place at the family home.One night Walters secretary asks to have a drink with him after work. She makes clear that she has repressed an attraction to him for the 20 years he has been her boss, and becomes emotionally upset. Walter shows certain discomfort but otherwise does not respond to her and tells her to take a few days off.One day Walter and India review some of the family stock holdings and insurance policies in a safe deposit vault at a bank. She asks him to tell her he loves her once in a while.One day Walter tells Doug that he has heart problems, and if he dies, India may depend on him.One day Indias friend Grace seems to be having mental problems, prompting India to ask Walter if she should try psychoanalysis. Walter dismisses the idea as foolish, telling India that she can just talk to him about her problems, or feel better by buying a new car.One day Carolyn laments that she is unhappy in her marriage, and India tries to console her. This motivates Carolyn to tell India that she thinks her father dominates her mother too much.After further concern about Grace, one day she dies from an apparent drug overdose. India is devastated, but Walter suggests it was inevitable.One day India tries to back her car out of the garage and it stalls between the doors, leaving her trapped. She turns off the engine and calmly waits for help despite an encroaching snowstorm. With her situation unbeknownst to Walter, he buys her flowers on the way home. When a local sees this, he suggests that Walter needs to celebrate more joy in his life. Walter flatly responds, I have known contentment.Indicating the simple contentment and lack of substantive drama in their lives, the end credits roll over home movies of the family, with captions revealing how they continued. The lives of Mr. and Mrs. Bridge did not become any more exciting: They went on as before for quite a few years.

Tags: romantic, home movie

Review:
One of the reason I prefer foreign films."Mr and Mrs Bridge" is an amazingly accurate depiction of upper middle class lives, caught in the trap of repression and respectability.
To watch the fate of Mrs Bridge (exquisitely portrayed by Joanne Woodward) as a woman trapped in a marriage to an inexpressive, career-focused man is to understand how women, even today, can lead limited, unfulfilled lives, bound up with a decisive husband and children who grow into self-absorbed adults, leaving their mother with a longing they won't or can't assuage.Seeing the character of Mr. Bridge (another outstanding performance by Paul Newman), himself caught in the routine of his life, his sexual yearnings repressed, convinced of his correctness and respectability is a picture of the rigidity of ideas, values and prejudices rampant in our society, even in our own time.An amazing and insight movie!!.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film, in addition to the storied couple (in real life) playing Mr. and Mrs. Bridge--I thought the story line excellent.
I actually grew up in Kansas City not long after the time period in the film and my family lived much as these people.
The film's "slowness" represents that time---Paul Newman's close and steady pace, his awareness and lack of awareness of the world around him are intriguing.
Joanne Woodward and Blythe Danner represent to very different types of women (of the time) but gives the viewer the sense that they are both trapped, one willingly and the other not so willingly.
There are myriads of wonderful little character traits, etc., in this movie worth pondering, by the way.While Mr Bridge is a fascinating persona, it is Mrs Bridge who, for me, remains central to the film.
There are many significant instances to underscore Mrs Bridge's circumstance as a woman dependent on her man, but none better, perhaps, than the at the end of the movie as a pampered victim in a car:  "hello?
In 'Mrs. Bridge' Connell presents events in the title character's life and marriage, always from her heartbreakingly naive perspective, yet managing to convey the true nature of the events at the same time.
In 'Mr. Bridge' the author presents the same marriage, this time from Mr. Bridge's perspective, a much less comic, though no less tormented character.The film fails to find an equivalent technique to present the parallel perspectives of the novel, those of the two main characters as well as an omnicient, often ironic narrator.Nevertheless, I think the film could have succeeded more than it does if it were not for the misconceived role of Mrs. Bridge.
Secondly, she, and the author and director, create a highly emotional, always-on-the-verge-of-tears character that totally misses the central theme of the novel which is that Mrs. Bridge is completely out of touch with her emotional self.
In one of the first scenes of the film, Mrs. Bridge bursts into tears in her husband's presence and expresses insights about their marriage that are completely beyond the capability of the character in the novel.
This ain't a popcorn film, it is a movie for a quiet time where you can sit back and watch a serious character study.
But here's an exception (to the last rule, at least): an intimate, snapshot diary of an ordinary, middle-class, mid-American couple, played by the off-screen couple of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Ruth Jhabvala's sensitive adaptation of the twin novels by Evan Connell is highlighted by her customary wit and attention to detail, with Newman and Woodward improving on the title roles by adding in their performances subtle shades of character which can't be written into any script.
The episodic, slice-of-life structure doesn't allow for any dramatic momentum, and there isn't much of a message beyond the observation that native mid-westerners are emotionally repressed, but under James Ivory's typically graceful direction (and with the help of a first-rate supporting cast) it's an uncommonly rich film, full of privileged moments..
"Mr. and Mrs. Bridge," directed by James Ivory, from 1990, is the story of one American family that represents many of that era, showing them in the period of 1937 until just after the war.The Bridge family is upper middle class.
Walter and India (Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward) have three children: the aspiring actress Ruth (Kyra Sedgwick, so young you can't believe it); Carolyn (Margaret Welsh), and Douglas (Robert Sean Leonard, another baby face).
Walter Bridge is a conservative man, one who can't and doesn't show his feelings, an excellent businessman, by the book, and seen today, very old-fashioned, almost Victorian in his attitudes.
India is a sweet, naive woman who doesn't know much of the world, but is exposed to it through her high-strung, independent-thinking friend (Blythe Danner) and her art classes.
Walter is a fair man, and when Ruth wants to go to New York, he allows it under certain conditions; when Carolyn wants to marry someone beneath their class, he hears the young man out and gives his blessing; and when Douglas wants to join the Air Force, he counsels his son to stick with his education until he's drafted.This doesn't mean that Walter and India know anything about their children's' private lives or the sex they're having.
Walter is far too rigid to consider such a thing, and India is too naive.This is certainly a picture of a different time, where the older generation didn't give their emotions much play, when women went to lunch, took art classes, and everything they did revolved around their husbands, and when the man's word was law.
Yet we can see the beginnings of change around the edges in their children's' lives of what's coming.The acting is marvelous, particularly from Paul Newman, who at 65 was still gloriously handsome; and from Blythe Danner, who belonged, perhaps, in a bigger city than Kansas City and among a more liberal crowd.
I see where Joanne Woodward's performance has been criticized here; some of it, I gather, was because of her age and also because the character says some things considered out of character as compared to the books on which the film is based.
Still, she has the sweetness, the caring, and displays the narrow thought of the character.If the film is slow, it's because of the time period in which the film is set.
Interestingly, it was a time period in which great self-analysis and deep thought could have emerged, but it wouldn't be until after the war that psychiatry (compared to astrology by Walter), women in the workplace, and changes in morality came into vogue.Today we live so differently - it wasn't all it was cracked up to be back then, and life today sure isn't all it's cracked up to be now.
A film like this does make one long for just a few of the old ways in terms of lifestyle perhaps - the simplicity, the sense of family, but in its repression and views of women, no way..
Mr.&Mrs. Bridge is an interesting character study of a pair of a typical married couple during the years before our entry into World War II.
The film does provide a good insight into the American mindset of a Republican oriented couple of the period, hardly the political orientation of its two stars.Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are the Bridges with two daughters and a son who are all reaching adulthood.
He's looking to join the army.The film netted Joanne Woodward an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and she is the most interesting character in the film.
I have to applaud the characterizations which are first rate, but this story which seemed really not to have a point just left me cold.However fans of Newman and Woodward will like Mr.&Mrs. Bridge..
Out of the Merchant Ivory productions I have seen, Mr and Mrs Bridge is my least favourite probably.
The direction is also solid, and the acting particularly from Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward is excellent.However, the film is in my view overlong, and further disadvantaged by one too many scenes that drag badly.
Overall though, I did like the movie but I prefer Remains of the Day, Room with a View and Howards End over Mr and Mrs Bridge.
for those who live in or know kansas city well, its an interesting film.
One of the very few Hollywood films to level any kind of criticism at the young generation, specifically big- city people, the story in many ways seems even more timely today (in 2005) than when it was made.Paul Newman gives one of his best performances in this film, and character actor Joanne Woodwardbecame a household name thanks to his dramatic turn in the movie's climatic scene near the end.
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward affirm their status as some of America's greatest movie stars in the Merchant & Ivory vehicle "Mr.
They play the title characters Walter and India, living in 1939 Kansas City.
She's a housewife: everything at home is based on wholesome cookbooks, and it's rather awkward when she finally learns about the reproductive system and has to tell her children (in short, an air of Marion Cunningham).Yes, it looks like nothing's ever going to change in this household.
As they move into this new era, things are going to be different, even if some awkward - maybe even unpleasant - situations have to arise.This movie was definitely an interesting look at an America slowly but surely crumbling.
They do not achieve much and they impart little to the world.Newman and Woodward, married in real life longer than almost any other Hollywood couple, are reliably good actors, and I just wish they had more to do here.
Lush period settings abound, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge is a visual treat; just what you expect from a Merchant/Ivory production.
The Bridges, a somewhat neurotic waspy-lawyerly family, consist of Woodward and Newman trying to prepare their two children for adulthood, or at least their twisted idea of adulthood.
There is no plot per se, we just watch.It's ok if you like this sort of thing, and Newman and Woodward are always good.
Starring Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward and based on the 2 novels by Evan Connell: "Mr. Bridge" & "Mrs. Bridge." Mr. Bridge (Newman) grew up in a modest family in a small, rural Kansas town and rose to become a prominent lawyer in Kansas City, MO, in the 1930s - early '40s, a member of the country club set and affluent society.
Set & filmed in Kansas City, MO (& with bits of KC jazz!!) it captures quite well some gender & social role aspects of affluent KC society in the 1930s-early '40s era: male dominated in which women were to raise kids, help their husbands, and be agreeable to them.
IMO, while the film's quite interesting it's not that enjoyable: it shows the effect of strictly living out one's life in a role (Mr. B's) rather than being more flexibly human.
(Also interesting was the view of that social class at that time: Although set in the mid to late Great Depression era, among this affluent class there was no mention of it except to be anti-Roosevelt and demand that all peoples earn their livings despite the severe nation-wide unemployment then existing).
It's a fascinating look back at a former era.This role for Newman is definitely not typical of his usual but he conveys Mr. Bridge's very constricted life quite well as does Woodward as the suffering but compliant Mrs. Bridge..
They have accepted all the upper middle-class values of their day, to the point that they simply do not allow themselves to live.Other movies have dealt with this same situation, and been more enjoyable because at least one character came to a realization of how those values imprisoned her/him and "made a break for it." Right off hand I think of Revolutionary Road, the 1950s story in The Hours, the wife in Pleasantville, etc.
Her best friend, who feels trapped in such a life, finally commits suicide, but it doesn't bring about an awakening in Mrs. Bridge.
The story and the characters simply are not interesting enough to justify sitting through the movie, as well as it is acted and as beautifully as it is filmed.
The strong point is Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward acting well.
While Merchant Ivory usually selects interesting novels or subjects to adapt I don't know why they decided on this rather boring story.It's far from a must watch..
My first thought upon seeing this depression-era period film was that no one could have ever been so stuffy, stupid, and socially constrained as the middle age/elderly couple played by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
What a limited life they led, and thank god for today's enlightenment.That women could have ever been so totally and willingly dependent, physically and mentally, on their husbands is now hard to imagine, but it did happen and was typical in the days when women did not work outside of the home.
As their daughter, Kyra Sedgewick showed well that the "future" was going to be a lot different for women than the present by her unmistakable signs of emancipated behavior.The film's story was ended so well by Woodward's character getting stuck in her car in her garage, as she was so dependent and ignorant about how to do anything in life for herself that she sat in her car for hours without even trying to figure out a very easy solution to her problem.
Although it was filmed in my home town, the novel written by a friend's uncle, the Bridge home about 6 blocks from mine, it was like watching home movies.
India Bridge (Joanne Woodward) is just going through the motions as a well-to-do housewife who has lived for her husband and children.
I was bored and by the second half I was beginning to feel that not only had India Bridge wasted her entire life, but I was compounding that tragedy by squandering precious time watching her!.
Walter Bridge (Paul Newman) is a mean obnoxious old man who treats everybody like dirt--especially his wife.
India Bridge (Joanne Woodward) plays his long-suffering wife who fights to keep the family together.
The acting is all good (especially by Newman and Woodward) but it can't save such a dull film.
Mysteries of Marriage and other Tales of a Bygone Age. India and Walter Bridge (Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman) are a conservative, middle-age, upper middle class couple who live in a perfect, mid-western neighborhood with a black housemaid, Harriet, an eagle scout son (Sean Leonard), and two college-age daughters, one who wants to marry a plumber's son instead of finish college, and the other who wants to make it in arts and literature in New York (Kiera Sedgewick).
Their values are solid, their views are typical of the period, and appropriate for the kind of existence that was typical American fairy tale 30s society.Learning of sex from a manual, Mrs. Bridges is uneasy to have to explain the facts of life to her son, her daughter on her wedding day, and probably, Mr. Bridge, who loves his wife but can not express his love in that old fashion stoic male way.
He would never consider his daughter would have an abortion, or even that she would engage in sex outside marriage, nor that his faithful secretary, Julia have a personal life and feelings for him after 20 years of employment.Mrs. Bridge is a housewife, not homemaker, a house wife.
He is respectful of her love and devotion.Contrasted with Mrs. Bridges is her close friend Grace (Blythe Danner), a nervous, high spirited and unconventional woman who fights with the hypocrisy of their existence and is a banker's wife.
To Walter she was unsuitable, but for India, she was beloved and a troubled best friend.A wonderful story of changing social values, and a family in transition, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge is an opportunity to showcase the fantastic performances of the senior citizen, Paul and Joanne Newman, thespians whose early years were as glamorous as Brad and Anglelina today.
Character, morals, and proper introductions have no place in their 40s WWII era, yet India is never aware how old fashion her ideas have become to her children's lives..
Sure, the movie is quite slow but the acting of Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Blythe Danner is superb.
This is a lovely film about family relationships and how families interacted then--we see similar values (love of family, concern for children's future) but different ways of living it out.Mr. Bridge doesn't quite like that his daughter will be marrying a plumber's son (not good enough for her!) and he gives his other daughter $1,000 to start a career in acting in New York.
She sees the bright things in life although she is quite unhappy because she feels her husband doesn't love her enough.If you happen to like European films and how they flesh out relationships, you will love this film..
Paul Newman, as small-minded, stodgy attorney Walter Bridge, far outshines his real life wife Joanne Woodward, who plays his on screen wife India Bridge.
In both of the books India Bridge is seen as a dull, small-minded, repressed, and petty Depression era hausfrau, with intangible longings to 'do something' with her life.
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge is a fine dramatization of two novels and features one of Paul Newman's finest performances.
It introduced us to Kyra Sedgwick and of course, Joanne Woodward gives her usual fine performance (She's the only one who got an Oscar nomination.It's the story of a family in the Kansas City suburbs.
When it starts out, the children are in HIgh School, but the film gives each of their stories time to develop.
However, for me, the performance that captivates is that of Blythe Danner as India Bridge's best friend, a woman being driven crazy by living in the Kansas City suburbs of the late 1950s and early 1950s.