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Mr. & Mrs. BridgeRating:
Release Date: 13 February, 2001 Retail Price: $14.98 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Complete Cast (11 total) |
Mr. & Mrs. Bridge Reviews
Muddling through, getting basically from here to nowhere - but a good movie anyway
Both Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward perform expertly in this adaptation of the Evan S. Connell novels. Newman is Walter Bridge, a stiff, by-the-book, passionless man, and Woodward his reticent, subservient wife, India. Although Woodward is unhappy in this relationship, the movie is not about an oafish, bullying husband and his dominated wife - it's a lot more subtle than that. Set in the 1930s, it's a time when the upper crust was still expected to act this way (although times were a-changing). Intelligent in a way lost to Hollywood in recent times, the movie doesn't take any of the shortcuts one might expect. The characters are not black and white, good and evil; they have interesting shadings about them - and our feelings about them and responses to them are also shaded. It's a very good movie; definitely worth a watch.
Mr. and Mrs. Newman
The movie follows the story of a couple, Walter and India Bridge (Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward), as they traverse the complexity of their long relationship as husband and wife and as parents to three children. The movie doesn't really have a plot, nothing really happens to move any story along. Instead the movie presents a series of vignettes that depicts different situations and events in their marriage from the mundane and unremarkable things to the more weighty things. All of those scenes were presented with such understated grace and simplicity. The movie doesn't exaggerate the emotions of the characters as well as consciously define the different characters in a black and white manner. There are wonderful and three dimensional characters in this movie that are elusive and flawed and vague, just like real human beings.
I think one of the most obvious differences between Walter and India is that Walter is someone whom emotions do not freely present itself to people. He's reserved and private. India is the exact opposite. The character in the course of the movie acted from being naive and optimist, to being hurt and disappointed, to being vulnerable and yearning, and to depressed and content. She's the most emotional character in the movie. And somehow because of that their love (the three dimensional kind, meaning no bells are ringing and no fireworks are exploding) for each other that made India want once in a while be verbalized just for reassurance.
Walter may not be the most ideal husband, but there's no doubt in my mind that he loves his wife. There's a scene in the movie where the couple had a fight and Walter tried to reassure his love for his wife by asking her to sit in his lap. Another scene is when he tried to console India after being hurt by his son's actions during a school activity by holding her hands without saying anything. I love how those little scenes were shown instead of being told.
The performances were topnotch. Some people say that Paul Newman was miscast and I could not disagree more. He was believable and understated. The role suits him quite well from the way the character looks and dresses, to that intellectual sound of his voice, and to that minimalist acting that he gave. Joanne Woodward provided a gamut of emotions in her performance in the most unaffected and realistic way. She's a knockout in this movie.
In the end we learned that Walter's son and his son became lawyers just like him and formed the firm Bridges and Bridges and Bridges. That pretty much implies how Walter was able to pass on his emotional detachment. How basically his son and his grandson would turn out just like him. But the movie doesn't really have an ending. This is one of those movies that doesn't seem to have any conclusions. The movie ended in the same manner the movie started, a glimpse in the life of an ordinary family doing ordinary things.
Grade: A-
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