5/10
Bluish comedy with an underlining moral...adult peer pressure leading to extramarital activities
28 August 2010
George Segal and Natalie Wood portray an upper-class married couple in Los Angeles who find they are the last of a dying breed: all the men and women within their circle of friends are separated from their spouses, divorced, or on the make. Occasionally smart and amusing screenplay by John Herman Shaner doesn't take a righteous stand on the sexy goings-on, though Shaner is quick to point out the pitfalls of the swinging middle-ager (impotency, venereal disease, unfulfilled coupling). Gilbert Cates directs it like an R-rated TV show, though some of the intended bite (laced with grown-up, witty humor) manages to come through, and the cast is good--however less of hammy Dom DeLuise would have been an improvement. Wood, in particular, shows a great deal of growth since her not-dissimilar dalliance with sexual inhibitions in 1969's "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"; she's surprisingly loose and physical here, and works comfortably with Segal, though George himself is rather wrung-out. With the sexual revolution of the 1970s fading fast upon its release, the film didn't stand a chance at the box-office, but parts of it are very funny and trenchant and have held up well. ** from ****
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