Written by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, based on the novel by Charles Webb
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross and William Daniels
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
There is no denying that this comedy from 1967 is a classic. It is filled with memorable scenes, perfect performances and top-notch writing. This film has withstood the test of time and still finds a sense or relevance among younger audiences.
But good God, is it annoying. Filled with stupid, annoying and irrational characters who do stupid, annoying and irrational things. No character has any redeeming qualities and even as a twenty-five year old, I find everyone's actions childish and literally the worst possible thing they can do in the situations they find themselves in.
Starring a definitely-not-twenty-year-old Dustin Hoffman and a not-much-older-than-Dustin-Hoffman Anne Bancroft, I found their characters rather unbelievable. Their affair, however was more believable than the love between Hoffman and the daughter of his lover.
More time was spent on establishing the affair than was spent on the entire part of the film in which he "fell in love" with the daughter, let alone the 30 seconds it took for him to fall in love with her. Which made the entire plot eye-roll worthy.
All that being said, you're probably expecting my to give this an extremely low rating. Despite all of it's flaws, and there were many, I found that the performances overshadowed them. Yes, they were all stupid, annoying and irrational. But they all had a humor to them that made the experience enjoyable. It's easy to see why this film is a classic.
My Rating: 6/10
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