Once Around
Tags: dramatic, romantic, home movie

Plot synopsis:
The Bellas are a close-knit family of Italian-Americans living in Boston, Massachusetts. Joe, the head of the family, owns a construction company. He's been married to Marilyn for 34 years and they have 3 children—Tony, Renata and Jan. Jan is about to get married, leading Renata to wonder why boyfriend Rob has not yet proposed to her. Once Rob reveals that he never plans on marrying her, she leaves him and moves back in with her parents.
Renata travels to the Caribbean, where she takes a course on selling condominiums. She meets Sam Sharpe, a highly successful salesman who makes a speech at a training seminar. They become instantly attracted and Sam accompanies her back to Boston, where Renata introduces him to her family. A chain-smoking, abrasive Sam is overly eager to please. While the majority of the Bellas give Sam a chance, Jan seems to have a particular dislike of him. This upsets Renata and the siblings' rapport becomes strained. Jan eventually apologizes and gives Renata her blessing.
Sam and Renata get married, with Sam relocating his business from New York to Boston so he can spend as much time with Renata as possible. At a memorial for Joe's late mother, Sam attempts to sing a song in her honor, but the Bellas, especially Marilyn, tell him it is highly inappropriate. Renata tells Sam he's tearing her family apart. They reconcile, and the next day Renata gives birth to their child. At the baptism, Sam suffers a heart attack and is rushed to the hospital.
Now in a wheelchair, Sam is welcomed home to the Bella residence to celebrate Christmas as a family. During dinner, he lights up a cigarette, which an irritated Renata throws into a glass of wine. On a frozen lake, Renata goes skating while Sam and their daughter watch from a distance. Sam passes away while still holding his child. After the funeral, Renata mourns but is grateful for the time they spent together and for Sam changing her life for the better. Renata's father directs the funeral procession through several rotations on a traffic round-about, something Sam greatly enjoyed during his life.

Review: It is a richly textured, completely unique character study of a youngish woman named Renata, played superbly by Holly Hunter in what is arguably her best performance.
Renata comes from a close Italian family outside of Boston, and has drifted from job to job without much confidence or direction.
A compelling and utterly captivating story ensues, which unlike most small films, takes major risks, and allows every character to be completely human.The story deals with the power of acceptance, of love, of the magic and complete idiocynracy of personal connection, and of what it means to be alive and human.
Yet the film is equally balanced in showing his many kindnesses to Renata and her entire family; his generosity, his love for her, and his pride that she loves him.
Renata tells her parents, "This is MY adventure!" and when you watch this, I think you will agree..
I've seen this movie probably 10 times and I watched it again yesterday with the love of my life.
Sam Sharp's behavior can be painful at times to watch, but he is so full of childlike belief in the goodness of everyone else that you can't help but feel real affection for him and no more so than when he kisses Joe Bella on the cheek in the most tender and loving way even after the cruel way he was treated.
Gena Rowlands,Danny Aiello, Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter are all so believable in their roles.
When Marilyn Bella says to Sam Sharp "I will not allow you to make my husband's family uncomfortable"(or words to that effect) she is like a mother lion defending her cubs.
I love this movie and now I start to tear up even when something good is happening because I know what's coming next.
An extremely well-crafted script developing a wide range of individual psychologies within an extended family, together with good casting and acting make this an exceptional film.
Dreyfuss plays the most enigmatic character, the one "tearing apart" the family, and so has the central role, but his past remains a mystery.
He delivers a materialistic and self-gratifying speech, with horrifically inappropriate humor, to a flock of aspiring condominium salespeople and proceeds to "fall in love" and quickly marry the immature "baby" member of the film's subject family.
Dreyfuss' character has large gaps, gaping scars - like the ragged edges of a piece of a puzzle, a piece that fits perfectly into the poorly developed, ragged edges of the family's youngest and otherwise socially inept and professionally helpless daughter.
As said, this film develops the characters of a extended family - not just the two above.
A funny and serious movie about a man who meets his wife and tries to fit in with her family.
The trials and tribulations that each member of the family go through upon meeting 'Sam'(Richard Dreyfuss) and the things said amongst the characters are sad, funny and a good representation of life within families.
Danny Aiello plays the father of Holly Hunter and really makes the movie in my opinion.
Without him being the way he is, the other central character played by Holly Hunter, would not be able to change and grow and ultimately be able to separate herself from her parents.
I also agree that you have to accept (like Her family) Dreyfus's character for who he is, allow it to be part of the plot.
This is not a GREAT movie, but a darn good one, with a touching ending..
"Once Around" has a great cast, an excellent story line and a song track that I just love.
Any film that has Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter as leads and Gena Rowlands as a supporting actress should be a must see film and I don't know how this one got passed me when it was first released.
Danny Aiello gives a great performance without going over the top and a young, Laura San Giacoma, before her "Just Shoot Me" days gives a glimpse of the star she should have become.
Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter star in an offbeat comedy where the characters are the punchlines.
Although Danny Aiello and Gena Rowlands add to the movie, it is Hunter's story.
A touching story that keeps the character development moving until the end of the movie.
I don't know why, but every time I watch Once Around I'm assured in the knowledge that it is un-important how unlike or disagreeing family members are, no argument can tear them apart.
The head of the family Joe Bella, wonderfully played by Danny Aiello, is about to retire.
After Jan Bella (Laura San Giacoma) is married, her sister, Renata (Holly Hunter), asks her boyfriend to marry her.
There she meets larger-then-life character Sam Sharpe (Richard Dreyfuss), and falls in love with him.
Once he becomes part of the Bella family, the usually close-knitted family starts to experience difficulties, and arguments become a daily occurrence.Holly Hunger and Richard Dreyfuss have brought their talents together before with good result (Always), and are as successful here in creating chemistry between the two characters.
The one character that stood out the most, in my mind,is Danny Aiello's family patriarch.
What could improve the ending is have daughter (Hunter) and father (Aiello) walk hand-in-hand in the snow, to symbolize her journey home and finds love and support where she always knew were there.
I loved the way the film portrayed the dynamics in the family.
Renata finally falls in love and then has to deal, at first, with her close-knit family's not accepting her husband.
Yes, her husband is different and a bit loud....but he has a heart of gold and loves Renata.
After watching the preview a local tv-station broadcast a couple of times I expected a kind of lame film about a silly romantic girl who falls for the wrong guy who presents himself as a rich spoiled arrogant piece of work and then turns out to be the imposter type.
The only reasons I decided to watch it nonetheless were a lack of alternatives at the time, Holly Hunter and good old Richard Dreyfuss.
Richard can do the arrogant -yet loving, caring- schmuck on autopilot and clearly has a ball portraying his character, so full of energy.
The rest of the cast also display great performance in this little film that keeps surprising.
They had nothing to lose and everything to gain by developing their relationship with him.I actually felt the family members were envious of Renata and Sam and their love for each other.It's a great study in family dynamics.
but let me tell you that Sam became the way the Bella´s family feel alive!
I falled in love with Richard Dreyfruss with this character!
Richard and Holly make me cry and laugh every time I see the movie...
The lead, Richard Dreyfuss, is obnoxious and annoying and the characters' behavior doesn't always make sense.
Yes, it is true that Sam (Richard Dreyfuss) is an obnoxious and over-the-top salesman.
A splendid scenario about love, a masterpiece of play on the part of Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter.
This scenario is original because it brings the idea, the topic of a rich, disproportionate, dazzling, invading and perfectly sincere love which happens to submerge all the family of beautiful woman involved, and this is due to the fact they forgot that kind of love they haven't known for a long time; one could love so much, and the joy could be so large, so big, so powerful, that the faith carried in such a love would upset any false life, superficial, timid, afraid way of living.
Yes, Lasse Hallström shamelessly pushes the limits of sentimentality (heck, it's a trademark with him), but I love this movie even at its sappiest.
Richard Dreyfuss creates a character that miraculously manages to be utterly lovable and repulsive at the same time.It's a film filled with surprises and unforgettable moments.
Richard Dreyfuss, in his patented-jerk mode, plays the self-centered, provoking, irritating new husband of family-oriented nice girl Holly Hunter, a woman in her thirties who has never been married before.
Once Hunter, her parents and her sister come to realize that he's nothing but a pain, the film hits a snag and doesn't have anywhere to turn except to sentiment (which doesn't quite play).
Nice supporting cast, including Gena Rowlands and Danny Aiello as Hunter's mom and dad, but a mostly unpleasant experience.
I love roundabouts and this movie is filled with several rounds of them, Renata's father (Dany Aiello) has a special attraction with the excitement it brings to drive a car in a roundabout and takes the chance every time he's able to.I've seen this movie lots of times and I can't believe it's been 18 years since it was released.
It's a fresh, funny, romantic Italian family movie and I do believe it's one of the best performances of Holly Hunter and also Richard Dreyfuss.I love when the father sings her "the glory of love" at the wedding, it's such a nice scene and also the way Renata sings "Fly me to the moon" all the time after she meets Sam..
The mousy daughter (Holly Hunter) of a blue-collar Boston clan finds her true love (Richard Dreyfuss) on a bogus business trip to the islands.
Hunter gets pregnant, Dreyfuss never slows down or eases off, and the friction he creates within her family slowly comes to a boil.
Part comedy, part drama, ONCE AGAIN is worth a look by the women in the audience and those men who will not mind watching a film that smells, however faintly, of a chick flick.
It takes a helluva long time for Aiello to come around to Dreyfuss, but watch for the key turning point, a moment that had me blubbering like Hunter's newborn.
Great feel-good movie!
The cast was incredible, and you want to hate Dreyfuss, but can't help but love him.
Yes, Richard Dreyfuss plays an arrogant man.
Today's families need to see this film.Yes, Richard Dreyfuss plays an arrogant man.
Today's families need to see this film..
I love the music (the one song!) and I really enjoyed the cast, yes, even Dreyfuss.
ONCE AROUND (1991) ***1/2 Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, Danny Aiello, Gena Rowlands, Laura San Giacomo, Danton Stone, Roxanne Hart.
Warmly engaging comedy about a very close eccentric Boston family whose eldest daughter (winsome Hunter) suddenly marries a seemingly too good to be true Lithuanian man (Dreyfuss) with the clan up in arms with one another.
The character Richard Dreyfuss plays in this film is annoying but very interesting.
Danny Aiello shows us that he is capable of some terrific moments and Holly Hunter is good as usual.
The Oscar winning Holly Hunter ("Renata") delivers one of her unique and consistently brilliant performances, she accurately portrays a woman stuck in a rut facing the pressures of being slightly older and unmarried with no real career and a very possessive Italian American family.
The film is also very funny in a "When Harry met Sally" kinda of way and by the end you will want to play the Frank Sinatra tune "Fly me to the Moon" again and again..
Sweet movie for those who believe in true love!.
Renata(Holly Hunter) and Sam(Richard Dreyfuss) are soul mates, but she has the most protective family ever featured in a movie.
He sings "Glory of Love" and "Fly Me to the Moon" in a touching way, if you already heard him singing in movies, Hudson Hawk(1991) for example, you will understand why is so nice to hear his nice Italian accent.
What's worse, it pairs cute-as-a-button Holly Hunter with the obnoxious Richard Dreyfuss, who looks like Jack Warden (venerable character actor and "Big Ben" in the epic "Problem Child" series).
I kept expecting exchanges like:Holly Hunter: I love you.Richard Dreyfuss: You got me a whore?!?!?A weird cinematic experience..
Most likely, it is all of the above.Holly Hunter stars as Renata, an unlucky-in-love Bostonian who falls for Sam (Richard Dreyfuss), a smooth-talking salesman who is similar to her parents in age but worlds away from them in personality.
Conflicts arise when Sam, a strong-willed Lithuanian, forces his beliefs on Renata's equally strong-willed Italian parents, Joe and Marilyn, played by Gena Rowlands and Danny Aiello.The performances are excellent, though Hunter's exaggerated New England accent is a distraction at times.
A scene with Marilyn castigating Sam at a funeral stands as an example of the pivotal performances Rowlands delivers even when she's a supporting character.
I can see why many people love it, though, and I have a few movies like this in my own favorites category.
"Once" is a good movie owing to director Hallström ("Gilbert Grape") and stars like Richard Dreyfuss ("The Goodbye Girl"), Danny Aiello ("City Hall") and Gina Rowlands ("Something To Talk About").Writer Maria Scotch Marmo tells a story about a young woman, Renata (Holly Hunter is on his worst) who falls in love with a contradictary personality called Sam Sharp (Dreyfuss).
Sharp is a rich and successful agent who has an ability to persuade everybody to love him except Renata's father, the newly retired Joe Bella (Aiello).
The only vulnerable point of "Once" is the lead character Holly Hunter herself.
Joe (Danny Aiello) is the king of his domain who's been married for almost 35 years to his classy wife Marilyn (Gena Rowlands) and have three adult children Tony (Danton Stone), Jan (Laura San Giacomo) and Renata (Holly Hunter).
There she meets a hotshot real estate agent named Sam Sharpe (Richard Dreyfuss) and is immediately attractive to his high-spirited, confident and spontaneous appearance.
Sam eventually marries Renata and relocates his business from New York to Boston to spend more quality time with Renata and the rest of the Bella clan.
At his funeral, Renata gives a eulogy thanking Sam for changing her life for the better and in his honour, Joe leads the procession on a traffic round-about.Most people under the middle-aged demographics might find this story to be uncool and just another clichéd formulaic romantic comedy.
Sam and Renata truly deserve each other and their reasons to fall for each other is what drives people to see this film.
Renata loves Sam because he's fun, caring and uplifting in charm, plus he's wealthy.
Sam loves Renata because she's intelligent, easy-going and care-free.
And at times it felt Sam's outrageous personality was too manipulative for Renata who just seems too easily charmed by him.
I saw this movie last night TWICE on Bravo and loved it.
I have lived in Boston and it is the portrayal of what happens to a very real Boston-style family (has heart, but doesn't like to show it off too much) when an obnoxious but full-of-heart real estate salesman comes into their life.
Another nice thing here is that events are not just dropped, they are picked up again: we start with Holly Hunter wanting to cuddle with her parents when she breaks up with her boyfriend and moves back home.
At the end the parents ask if she wants to cuddle, and she says, "I love you guys" but she can't do that any more, now that she's a woman.
The story is told through a progression of family celebrations and ceremonies, which bring out most of their character and tell us the most in a quiet way.
The cast is wonderful, especially the re-teaming of Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter (Both were fantastic in the film, "Always," too).
Renata Bella (Hunter)comes from a close knit family.
They fall in love and she takes him to meet her family, who are dismayed by his behavior and equally dismayed when Sam marries Renata.
A different but very close family is torn apart when their daughter Renata meets and brings home the arrogant, obnoxious and much older Sam Sharp."Once Around" is too akin to "Moonstruck", with its old fashioned melodies and family drama.
We have all met Richard Dreyfuss character - loud, passionate, enthusiastic & overbearingly positive - life is pure joy for him & Holly Hunter falls madly in love.
Superb performances, particularly from Dreyfuss & excellent dialogue - this is a little gem - think this gave the director his big break & whilst good films followed, Chocolate, Cider House Rules etc.
I enjoy Holly Hunter's acting so I thought I would watch this film "Once Around." I found Sam's character to be wildly inappropriate and selfish.
The funeral scene in which Renata's father had buried his mother was particularly telling of Sam's poor qualities.
As the Renata's family circled her and her little baby girl, Sam brought in some musicians so he could sing his damn song.
Sam was also too friendly with Renata's mother, sister, and almost every other female character.
While not a total jerk in regards to providing for Renata and her family, he lacked the moral intellect and partnership skills necessary for true human relationships.Sam soured my viewing and enjoyment of the film.
The characters are well drawn and the wonderful Richard Dreyfuss steals the whole film (for me).
It explores the relationships within the family.After being rejected by her boyfriend at her sister's wedding, Holly Hunter meets Richard Dreyfuss by chance and love blossoms from the first second.
Problem is that the Dreyfuss character, a free spirit with a golden heart, goes overboard and gets off to a bad start with Hunter's parents, Danny Aiello and Gena Rowlands.Dreyfuss means well, but his persistence is overwhelming and causes a family fracas.As is so true to life, it takes a major illness to resolve things.This is a marvelous story of found and lost love..
SPOILERS!!!!!I've seen this movie several times now and if it's ever on I cannot helpmyself from watching it again all the way through as I did 2 nights ago.This is the story of a very close knit Italian family living in Boston(love the accents).