porter stoddard ( warren beatty ) is a successful architect married to successful fabric designer ellie ( diane keaton ) for twenty - five years .
they and best friends mona ( goldie hawn ) and griffin ( garry shandling ) are about to face marital crises in a film most well known for its torturous path to the screen , " town and country .
" " town and country " has a pedigree befitting it 's title with an all star cast photographed by oscar nominated cinematographer william fraker and mouthing the words of screenwriter buck henry ( " the graduate " ) under the direction of peter chelsom ( " funny bones " ) .
after years of reports of budget overruns and reshoots and the racking up twelve different release dates , the media has been prepped for beatty 's next " ishtar .
"
so , is it that bad ?
the answer is no .
but it 's not very good either .
the major problem with " town and country " is that it 's unstructured and random .
stoddard is immediately established as a philanderer , having just bedded a flaky cellist ( nastassja kinski ) .
next scene finds him and ellie celebrating their anniversary in paris with mona and griffin .
then mona spies griffin hustling a redhead into a motel and begins divorce proceedings ( buck henry cameos as both couples ' divorce lawyer ) .
ellie thinks she 's overeacting , but sends porter to support mona on a trip to check out her family 's mississippi manse .
the two childhood friends end up in bed together , making us wonder why they 'd never become a couple to begin with . back home , their second coupling is interrupted by ellie bursting in to tell mona
she thinks porter 's cheating on her .
porter goes off on a trip with griffin to sun valley , idaho to have more comic misadventures with wacky women as griffin attempts to tell him that he 's gay .
the four friends , along with every woman porter 's dallied with , all end up back in new york city somewhat happily ever after .
although the film begins promisingly , resembling a woody allen take on new york city wasps , too many strands drift off into nowhere .
the stoddard household is huge , containing two adult children ( josh hartnett , " the virgin suicides " and tricia vessey , " kiss the girls " ) , their colorful bedmates and a maid who 's just imported her shirtless boyfriend from the rainforest back home .
after an amusing early scene that has porter overhearing three bouts of lovemaking while in search of a nocturnal snack , the six supporting players are dropped except for an out - of - nowhere appearance by the formerly forgotten son .
porter 's romantic misadventures with women ( other than mona ) are equally mishandled .
once the marital discord begins , the film seems as if it was editted with a machete , stopping and starting , never regaining its rhythm .
while beatty gets off a few tart observations , his character is mostly passive and bemused .
maybe we 're supposed to feel sympathy for an adulterer who does n't initiate his own sex romps ?
keaton 's ellie has a trusting nature that 's a result of her own self involvement resulting in an unlikeable character .
hawn smartly recycles her mature sex kitten wives of " the out of towners " and " the first wives ' club " while shandling 's relegated to true second banana status .
kinski is bland and unmotivated .
andie macdowell takes a weirdly unappealing role and does what she can with the screenplay 's most bizarre subplot , which finds charlton heston as her rifle toting , billionaire daddy and marian seldes as her alcoholic , wheelchair - bound , foul - mouthed mother .
heston and seldes are fun , as is jenna elfman as a sun valley bait and tackle salesgirl who brings porter and griffin to a halloween party .
oscar nominatored cinematographer william fraker gives the film a nice look , but director chelsom shows none of the quirkily and blackly humorous depth
he brought to films like " hear my song " and " funny bones .
"
the script is this film 's weakest link - it 's telling that most of the ( few ) laughs come from old - fashioned physical slapstick and the sight of beatty in a bear suit .
while " town and country " is n't exactly painful to sit through , it mostly just lays there .
an out - of - nowhere appearance shows none of the quirkily and blackly humorous depth this film 's weakest link bland and unmotivated it mostly just lays there the major problem with equally mishandled weirdly unappealing role too many strands drift off into nowhere it 's not very good either as if it was editted with a machete , stopping and starting , never regaining its rhythm relegated to true second banana status unstructured and random