Customer Reviews

A Perfect Couple

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I came to this film in a roundabout way. With the passing of Paul Newman I was seeking out some of the actor's more offbeat fare which led me to the Robert Altman box set which contained "Quintet". "A Perfect Couple" intrigued me because of the presence of Paul Dooley, one of the finer character actors of his era. Saying "A Perfect Couple" is a major letdown is an understatement. This isn't just poor Robert Altman. This film would make Alan Smithee blanch. The film's central romance is underdeveloped and uninteresting. Dooley, normally a dependable actor, is left to flounder here. I have nothing against actresses whom you wouldn't call conventional beauties but Marta Heflin can't even compensate it with personality. Needless to say the romantic spark between Dooley and Heflin fizzles. A trademark of Altman films are large ensembles but nary a character distinguishes themselves. Too many cooks I say. Heflin's character is in the chorus of an alleged rock band who are supposed to act as some kind of Greek chorus. Their MOR offerings are too weak to resonate. When are they going to put "Brewster McCloud " on DVD?

It's possible that after directing one of his all-out masterpieces, 3 Women, Robert Altman needed to take a break from films that were, like 3 Women, experimental or surrealistic (this also applies to Images, another film directed around the same period). So maybe that's why he did A Perfect Couple, following immediately after A Wedding.

The original title of A Perfect Couple was supposed to be A Romance; it's clear this was meant as a companion piece to A Wedding; it also, like A Wedding, stars Paul Dooley. Dooley is a good actor, but not a great one. Here he's the romantic lead, son of an autocratic Greek patriarch, looking for the woman of his dreams. In 1979, when this movie was released, dating services had been around for a little while, and we get to see (yawn) videos of his character as well as that of the female romantic lead, played by Martha Heflin, and one other guy as well.

We also get to see (and hear) the mostly dated songs of a band called, I kid you not, Keepin' Em Off the Streets which, again for that time, was, I suppose, a hip name for a rock band with four different vocalists singing songs in the pretty much typical 70s high emotional drama style, one of whom is the movie's female romantic lead, and another of whom, another woman, really knows how to belt out those emotions, oh yeah.

A few of the scenes here and there are actually kind of funny, but for a much better romantic comedy about a Greek person 'hooking up' with a non-Greek person, see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In A Perfect Couple, though, you do get to see Henry Gibson playing a pompous Southern dork who's already married into the Greek family, and you also get to see Dennis Franz--he of infamous NYPD Blue fame--when he was much thinner.

The DVD features an interview with Altman, which is OK, but nothing special, and also interviewed are some of the other people associated with the movie, including Paul Dooley, Martha Heflin, and a couple of the producers. These interviews are really not a big deal.

A LOT of songs are sung on stage by the band. Yep, a LOT. Maybe a couple are still pretty good, but that's about it. A pretty fair amount of the dialogue is kind of wooden.

It's really pretty strange to see that the same director who turned out such great films as the aforementioned 3 Women and Images, as well as The Player, Short Cuts, and even Kansas City and Thieves Like Us, could also direct this really weak film.

Not recommended.

The biggest problem with A Perfect Couple is that it tries to be two films: a romantic comedy and the story of a rock band. There are some wonderful and funny moments between Dooley and Heflin, but the film doesnt pay off in that regard. They dont have very good chemistry - Dooley is pushy and Heflin kind of quiet. The resolution of their relationship problems is pat, and the film focuses too much on the rock group, especially in the final 40 minutes or so.

Indeed, the rock group must account for a good half of the film, and I feel that the plotline involving Dooley and Heflin is sacrificed in depth to the bands story. By the way, even by late 70s standards, the band is cheesy - more Broadway than rock. There are two good songs ("Love Is All There Is" - sounds like Bacharach (!) and the ballad Heflin sings - "Wont Someone Care" I think it's called), but even those are performed poorly. The rest of the tunes are pretty bad and the performances are laughable in their use of 70s rock cliches.

If the music was better, perhaps the film would rate higher. Thats the problem - theres so much music (at least a dozen songs) that the poor quality of the music sinks the film. Music is very important in Altman films, but here it lets him down. The music overwhelms the romance between Dooley and Heflin, who should have received more screen time rather than that awful band - which seems like some kind of joke in 2007.

Altman made some great films, but this isn't one. There's too much tuneless 70s music to pad out the time, the 'story' is slight and unsubtle, Paul Dooley is fine but Marta Heflin seems to be in a daze for the film. My dvd copy had such wobbly sound it was unlistenable, especially the classical stuff.

I stumbled onto this movie and was intrigued enough to see it through to the end. It was so different than I expected. "A Perfect Couple" has to have been chosen as a 'tongue in cheek' title since the couple are opposite extremes. To say his family is weird is an under statement, i.e. wealthy (What is this a castle?) uptight, and stuffy. They love classical music.
Her shared space 'family', a rock band, live on the top floor of a warehouse with parachute cloth as dividers for personal space and are equally weird in an opposite, extreme way from his - mainly open minded and free. The rock band reminded me of the Village people with each member having their own personality and I loved the music. Usually old movies are so dated that I lose interest quickly. The main theme to me was that these two people just wanted to meet someone they thought they could relate to and love as their situations were not satisfying that need. The success of this couple is doubtful as their backgrounds are very different. It was cleverly done. It would only have been disappointing if you were indeed looking for the perfect couple. A seemingly perfect couple does wander through out the movie but even they at the end were having a disagreement.

A Perfect Couple
I saw this movie years ago. Perhaps you have to be older than 35yrs. to like it. I love this movie and was very happy to find it. Paul Dooley of Sixteen Candles is a favorite of mine, and best of all I would pay big money just to hear Ted Neeley's voice of Jesus Christ Superstar. I wiil admit if the two above actors were not in this movie I would'nt have bought it. Still, I love it.