Awful "thriller" with annoying, zoom-plagued cinematography and ultimately pointless narrative.
Julie Christie is ok at best, while Donald Sutherland fares a bit better, but he can't save the tedium that this film sinks into almost immediately, and never climbs its way out. Its exalted reputation is a bigger mystery than the film itself. The infamous sex scene attracted a lot of attention in 1973. Now it looks like what it is: staged for effect, with not apparent purpose, apart from what another reviewer has pointed out: a contrast with the constantly contentious relationship we see before it, a way to 'humanize' these characters. Perhaps, but it doesn't make the movie worth seeing more than once. I'd never say don't see this movie, many think it's great. But for some of us it's a major misfire.
Julie Christie is ok at best, while Donald Sutherland fares a bit better, but he can't save the tedium that this film sinks into almost immediately, and never climbs its way out. Its exalted reputation is a bigger mystery than the film itself. The infamous sex scene attracted a lot of attention in 1973. Now it looks like what it is: staged for effect, with not apparent purpose, apart from what another reviewer has pointed out: a contrast with the constantly contentious relationship we see before it, a way to 'humanize' these characters. Perhaps, but it doesn't make the movie worth seeing more than once. I'd never say don't see this movie, many think it's great. But for some of us it's a major misfire.