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Loving Couples
The 1980 comedy Loving Couples is a by-the-numbers romantic comedy that remains somewhat watchable thanks to a terrific cast.
Evelyn (Shirley MacLaine) is a doctor who is feeling neglected by her husband, Walter (James Coburn), who is also a doctor. Evelyn's discontent with her marriage makes it very easy for her to drift into an affair with one of her patients, a sexy real estate agent named Greg (Stephen Collins). It's not long before Walter gets a visit from a weather girl named Stephanie (Susan Sarandon), who informs him that she is Greg's girlfriend and that he is having an affair with Evelyn. Of course, Walter and Stephanie decide the best way to get back at their unfaithful lovers is by giving them a dose of their own medicine.
The screenplay by Martin Donovan (Death Becomes Her) sometimes plays like a throwback to romantic comedies of the 1950's and other times like an extended episode of a sitcom. To give you an idea of the kind of film we're talking about, if it were made in the 50's, Evelyn and Walter would have been played by Doris Day and Cary Grant and Stephanie would have been played by Marilyn Monroe. There's a dangling plot point here and there, like we never find out exactly how Stephanie found out who Evelyn was, but it eventually becomes irrelevant. One original bit that brought the film its biggest laugh is when the four principals meet face to face for the first time and discover what's going on. There's also an unnecessary plot complication when an amorous customer of Greg's, played by the fabulous Sally Kellerman, starts to come between him and Evelyn.
Jack Smight's direction is definitely on the pedestrian side and makes an hour and thirty-seven minute film seem twice as long. A running bit about James Coburn's teeth also grows tiresome pretty quickly, as do Stephanie's jokes about the trials and tribulations of being a weather girl, which only make the less than interesting central plot even less interesting than it already is,
Smight does put together a pretty good cast to pull this kind of predictable hijinks off. MacLaine is a little one-note for my tastes, but Coburn is fantastic and Sarandon brings a substance to Stephanie that is not in the screenplay and, of course, Kellerman steals every scene she's in. When it all comes down to it, this is another one of those movies that is like a beautifully wrapped package with nothing inside.
The 1980 comedy Loving Couples is a by-the-numbers romantic comedy that remains somewhat watchable thanks to a terrific cast.
Evelyn (Shirley MacLaine) is a doctor who is feeling neglected by her husband, Walter (James Coburn), who is also a doctor. Evelyn's discontent with her marriage makes it very easy for her to drift into an affair with one of her patients, a sexy real estate agent named Greg (Stephen Collins). It's not long before Walter gets a visit from a weather girl named Stephanie (Susan Sarandon), who informs him that she is Greg's girlfriend and that he is having an affair with Evelyn. Of course, Walter and Stephanie decide the best way to get back at their unfaithful lovers is by giving them a dose of their own medicine.
The screenplay by Martin Donovan (Death Becomes Her) sometimes plays like a throwback to romantic comedies of the 1950's and other times like an extended episode of a sitcom. To give you an idea of the kind of film we're talking about, if it were made in the 50's, Evelyn and Walter would have been played by Doris Day and Cary Grant and Stephanie would have been played by Marilyn Monroe. There's a dangling plot point here and there, like we never find out exactly how Stephanie found out who Evelyn was, but it eventually becomes irrelevant. One original bit that brought the film its biggest laugh is when the four principals meet face to face for the first time and discover what's going on. There's also an unnecessary plot complication when an amorous customer of Greg's, played by the fabulous Sally Kellerman, starts to come between him and Evelyn.
Jack Smight's direction is definitely on the pedestrian side and makes an hour and thirty-seven minute film seem twice as long. A running bit about James Coburn's teeth also grows tiresome pretty quickly, as do Stephanie's jokes about the trials and tribulations of being a weather girl, which only make the less than interesting central plot even less interesting than it already is,
Smight does put together a pretty good cast to pull this kind of predictable hijinks off. MacLaine is a little one-note for my tastes, but Coburn is fantastic and Sarandon brings a substance to Stephanie that is not in the screenplay and, of course, Kellerman steals every scene she's in. When it all comes down to it, this is another one of those movies that is like a beautifully wrapped package with nothing inside.