Bovie Movie

Sarah Huttington, recently engaged, goes home to Pasadena with fiancé Jeff for a family wedding. She hears a rumor that “The Graduate” (book and movie) are based on her family. Did her grandmother and her mom have flings with the same man just before her parents married? Is she a strange man’s child; does this explain why she doesn’t fit in? Was her mother happy? Is she too facing a loveless marriage? Where can she seek answers: her mother’s dead, her father’s a pleasant naïf. Ask her salty grandma? Better to ask the man in the triangle, the real Benjamin Braddock. With Jeff’s blessing, Sarah heads for San Francisco, looking for the key to her past and to her future.

The ultimate rebel Jack Nicholson has a ball playing the ultimate establishment figure in this star-laden, rather old-fashioned courtroom drama. In fact, Nicholson’s role as the obsessive, hard-nosed marine officer is little more than a scene-stealing cameo — the two leads are Tom Cruise and Demi Moore, who play naval lawyers trying to discover the truth behind the death of a recruit. It’s crisply directed by Rob Reiner, who once again shows that he is comfortable with numerous styles of film-making, and, if it becomes a little talky at times, the climactic fireworks between Nicholson and Cruise make for compulsive viewing. The fine supporting cast includes Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak and JT Walsh, and there’s also a chilling cameo from Kiefer Sutherland. 

Director Rob Reiner here tried to make another When Harry Met Sally-style romantic comedy, but clearly forgot to hire someone capable of turning in a funny or moving script. Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer do their best as Ben and Katie Jordan, an unhappily married couple who opt for a temporary separation when their kids go off to summer camp. However, what could have been a sweet and amusing tale of mid-marriage crisis is a rather one-sided affair, with Willis cast as the good guy and Pfeiffer saddled with the role of whining witch. One wonders what they’re doing in such a weak film, and why Reiner — who gave us such classics as This Is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride — should choose to direct it.