Master dramatist Sidney Lumet takes a gentler, more lighthearted approach to human nature in his gentle comedy GARBO TALKS. While the film centers on the main character's obsession with the great Greta Garbo, it is Anne Bancroft as the obsessed woman herself who is the luminous heart of the film. As Estelle Rolfe, a perpetually protesting, heartbreakingly earnest and eccentric New Yorker, Bancroft is a powerhouse. Ron Silver is Gilbert (named for Garbo costar John Gilbert), Estelle's beloved adult son, living dutifully nearby, enduring marriage to a demanding wife (Carrie Fisher). The cantankerous Estelle is suddenly and tragically stopped in her tracks when she learns that she has less than six months to live. She decides that she must meet her idol, Garbo, before she dies, and Gilbert determinedly undertakes to locate the notoriously secluded actress; en route he encounters New York's rich underworld of eccentrics, leading him on a wild and seemingly fruitless chase. The all-star cast presents an endearing portrait of a city filled with individual stories and cherished common experiences; Bancroft is astounding in her earthy, captivating human portrayal of a woman in love with life while facing death.
