by Mary McCarthy
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Grey Gardens / The Beales of Grey Gardens - Criterion Collection (2-disc set) DVD ~ Edith Bouvier Beale |
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Editorial Reviews
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Fans of Sidney Lumet and screen adaptations of 20th-century literature may want to check out The Group, a relatively faithful film version of Mary McCarthy's seminal post-graduate "campus" novel of the same name. The elliptical and rather familiar plot follows a group of young women--all classmates, friends, and recent graduates from a certain single-sex liberal arts college--as they face the inevitable pressures to sand the rough edges off their personalities and to surrender their independence to the men in their lives and the institutions they represent. Lumet (The Verdict, Dog Day Afternoon) lends to this tale his peculiar sense of lighting, pacing, and rich, captivating color, but he directs with a ponderousness and seriousness that the source material perhaps does not deserve, and certainly cannot comfortably withstand. The wedding-funeral framing device employed here is one we've all encountered before, and Lumet does not afford his young actresses much latitude of expression or interpretation. Particularly stiff (in her first film role, and, boy, does it show) is Candace Bergen; as Lakey Eastlake, the "beautiful one" among the friends, she's asked to provide a moral center for the story, yet her scenes are wooden and rarely develop any dramatic momentum. The lovely Elizabeth Hartman fares better as Priss, an innocent whose blunt sexual initiation still feels harrowing. Amid the gravity of the proceedings, an ensemble cast (which includes, among others, Joan Hackett, Shirley Knight, and Joanna Pettet) strains to replicate the searing wit of McCarthy's prose; and, in several winning scenes, the script preserves some fine examples of her dialogue. Nevertheless, the source novel--by no means War and Peace--doubtlessly would have benefited from a lighter touch. --Miles Bethany
Fans of Sidney Lumet and screen adaptations of 20th-century literature may want to check out The Group, a relatively faithful film version of Mary McCarthy's seminal post-graduate "campus" novel of the same name. The elliptical and rather familiar plot follows a group of young women--all classmates, friends, and recent graduates from a certain single-sex liberal arts college--as they face the inevitable pressures to sand the rough edges off their personalities and to surrender their independence to the men in their lives and the institutions they represent. Lumet (The Verdict, Dog Day Afternoon) lends to this tale his peculiar sense of lighting, pacing, and rich, captivating color, but he directs with a ponderousness and seriousness that the source material perhaps does not deserve, and certainly cannot comfortably withstand. The wedding-funeral framing device employed here is one we've all encountered before, and Lumet does not afford his young actresses much latitude of expression or interpretation. Particularly stiff (in her first film role, and, boy, does it show) is Candace Bergen; as Lakey Eastlake, the "beautiful one" among the friends, she's asked to provide a moral center for the story, yet her scenes are wooden and rarely develop any dramatic momentum. The lovely Elizabeth Hartman fares better as Priss, an innocent whose blunt sexual initiation still feels harrowing. Amid the gravity of the proceedings, an ensemble cast (which includes, among others, Joan Hackett, Shirley Knight, and Joanna Pettet) strains to replicate the searing wit of McCarthy's prose; and, in several winning scenes, the script preserves some fine examples of her dialogue. Nevertheless, the source novel--by no means War and Peace--doubtlessly would have benefited from a lighter touch. --Miles Bethany
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