For anyone who has loved or shouldn't have - this 1984 Movie, "Falling In Love" will hit all the Erogenous Zones!
I don't care if it's 1944, 1984 or 2044; when you add Forbidden Fruit - your Bananas start to Brown!
If you're one of the lucky ones who've experienced this magnificent head to toe combustion; you'll be able to get through this article with no trouble. My challenge goes to those other 47% that I have to turn on!
DeNiro & Streep or Streep & DeNiro - it doesn't matter...these two have more Chemistry than Dupont!
This Gem of a Movie is not only one of my Top 10 Favs because it's Charming, Tender & has big Stars - but fair warning; keep the Fire Extinguisher handy!
During the Premier, I heard the engorged, anticipated rapture was so restrained - the Projectionist had to be replaced twice!
And, am I jealous! Opening & Closing Romantic Scenes take place in Manhattan at Christmas in a Bustling Book Store - and all I ever got browsing - was a Paper Cut!
And "Meeting Cute" in the Book Store was as superbly choreographed as you'll ever see:
Over-Shopped & Frazzled; two strangers wind up with the other's Holiday purchases - or as Woody Allen might say, "This could be a Metaphor for the exchanging of Bodily Fluids"!
After seeing this film numberless times; I'm not just a Stalker at Barnes & Noble; they gave me Stock - just to get me the hell out of there!
You see, I draped myself so erotically by the Humor Section - I was scaring the Children!
The same goes for Trains! I bet you didn't know the B&O has "WANTED" Posters!
Yes, I'm not the first Gal in heat who got royally chafed Shimmying those metal Hang-on Poles!
Trains don't have Poles; Subways do! Okay, okay - so forget you read it!
You see, Frank (DeNiro) & Molly (Streep) just happen to take the same Commuter Train into & out of New York City daily. And after many "Foreplay Coincidences" on the Trains - they meet again where their getting-to-know-you-patter sounds tentatively Smitten-ish:
FRANK
"You work in the City"?
MOLLY
"No, I'm married".
FRANK
"I'm married too".
MOLLY
"Well, lots of people are".
See what I mean? But don't let that scare you away from the Movie!
Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Square Skating Rink, Pushcart Lunch in Chinatown, a Friend's empty apartment & a lumpy Bed - these are tried & true "Dating Scenes" - but enough about me!
Yet, this is not a Romantic Comedy - there's nothing funny about Lust.
That's why it was so difficult for Frank (DeNiro) to explain to his Suburban wife his feelings for a woman he met on the Train - because it was worse than if they actually had been intimate.
Of course, he didn't have to tell his wife anything - but then they'd have to explain the kick in the Cahones ** & his Posture for the rest of the film!
So, I repeat; this is not a funny Movie - it's full of angst, yearning, passion, desire, guilt & Panting...and that was just me - choking on my Popcorn!
I'm sorry, but this time I can't pick A FAVORITE SCENE - because there are too many...
She Dresses & Re-Dresses for her Tryst? No.
They tell each other they don't think this is a good idea? No.
He tells her we better decide - the Parking Meter's running! No.
But it just might be the Red Hot Scene at a "Pivotal Point in the Consummation"!
Months go by & in the end; neither of them know that each is no longer Married & Free - but too proud to take a chance again.
But time marches on & before we walk out of the Theatre & back into our humdrum lives - we are treated to a bona fide Orgasm!
Well, at least Cinematically! Ha ha
Now clean yourself up & go rent the Movie!
** My Spell Check Gal is still scratching her head over "Cahones"!
Here's a Clip on the Train - sorry for the language Captions - but the Swedish are Lovers too!
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Comments
But I am not sorry I went to see it and ended up fretting why it didn't GRAB me! Again, I had wanted so badly to like it when I went. And thought maybe I could learn something as a writer on why it didn't work for me.
I went TRUSTING to have my socks knocked off with these "best" actors. High expectations are rough on a movie. How could this movie not work? But I felt impatient and manipulated by it. Infidelity was never so protectively presented. Noble restraint never so exquisitely portrayed.
Dialogue so realistically written and well acted -- in that their early on communication was 95% subtext, what was spoken was endearingly or faux-endearingly tentative and halting and charming and very human ... like all of us would utter to an attractive other being so distracted by sexual attraction we would be -- lust jamming our intellectual capacity. Yes, we relate.
BUT seeing Streep and DeNiro utter it, funnily, I couldn't buy it, maybe cuz it went on so teasingly long? I watched them as actors being adept actors and when you ironically admire an actor's or actors' acting ability while they are acting on screen, then they have fallen short of enthralling you into their world which is the goal.
I don't think it was just that unlike Unfaithful movie we don't get to see any full-out unleashed surrenders to lust. Their moral reins much tighter. Most of us could relate more to and would follow the more conservative and restrained and moral paths of Streep and DeNiro.
I think Madison County conveyed this brilliantly in watching two people with strong consciences dealing with such a scenario. I think Eastwood and Streep had the chemistry and lifted the material even higher because of it. Streep and DeNiro couldn't, but the material did not offer them that opportunity, either. Streep and Eastwood did get to finally say more profound and compelling things to each other and get angry with each other, show their differences which attracted unlike DeNiro and Streep. We get to see them connect emotionally AND physically more honestly and fully.
For Streep's and DeNiro's noble characters the writer and director are so heavy-handed in presenting them as PERFECT even amidst the challenge of star-crossed "love" or the first stage of love -- the honeymoon phase which we never see tested between the two main characters (writer and director signal us to take it for granted) --- we do see the struggles (but again the writer/director are careful to not paint the spouses with too dark a brush either which felt manipulative to me) with their spouses in their long time non-honeymoon phases.
I felt the writer's and director's thumbs too heavily on a moral scale that I found off-putting as the watcher. Though the theme I give them points for embracing and writing about, they were circling some really important moral issues. But again felt manipulated way too much. Kind of like I felt manipulated when Ali McGraw gets terminal cancer in Love Story (from so many decades ago). Yeah, your heartstrings are involved but there is a sense of protest somewhere inside at the same time that you know you are being yanked about and not gently led.
The resolution of FIL was not cathartic for me, either. Madison County's far more poignant and realistic.
Streep was brilliant in Madison County and I bought that infidelity. This one disappointed. Chemistry with Streep and DeNiro may be a part of it. I find DeNiro one of the most compelling actors in America. As a romantic hero, like Nicholson who is also so fascinating on screen, he just doesn't do it for me on the lust meter, though.
So, Marilyn, forgive the wet blanket on one of your faves. Some of my faves leave my friends shaking their heads in wonderment.
You can see what a pain-in-the-ass over-analyzing iconoclast I was even way back when this movie came out.
best, libby
In general it's not fair TO THE FILM to judge it to today's standards or tastes - or compare it to any other film of it's genre - it is what it is. And if I recommend these (old films) at least folks won't be having to pay the 12.50 to see it!
Sometimes you have to Suspend Your Disbeliefs & just enjoy the performances & appreciate the major effort movie people put into it to get produced at all.
Maybe Movies shouldn't be analyzed to death & Movie Ticket Prices should go back to 5 dollars!
For me - there are no Flops. They fail for a lot of reasons. And some of the most spectacular manuscripts ever written have never seen the light of day - including the ones I'm trying to Market! ha ha
I loved "Bridges of Madison County" & "Unfaithful" - not because I'm immoral & like to see the breaking up of families - but because the movies were powerfully entertaining & well acted.
Clint Eastwood is a masterful Director & "Bridges" was made in a much later time period than "Falling in Love", the backdrops were city & country & had all that time inbetween to perfect it's tale & they shouldn't be compared to each other.
I never go by what a friend, family member or Reviewer says - we can like & dislike movies, books, theatre & such for so many personal reasons.
Oh, and I'm sorry DeNiro never did it for you! ha ha
I don't wish to be a dick about this, but the word is cojones. My old friend jmac did not check the Wikipedia article under cajones. Purely for the benefit of the spell check girl. In no way intended to impede the discussion of the film under consideration here.