Richard Gere in Love Square

The melodrama Meet the Parents, eagerly awaited by the fans of Richard Gere, promised to become one of the brightest and highest-grossing films of the end of winter – beginning of spring 2023. But it did not happen … Let’s try to figure out the reasons.

To begin with, the script for the comedy Meet the Parents, staged by 57-year-old American director and writer Michael Jacobs, whose work often appeared both on Broadway and on American television, grew out of his own play.

Heroes, two young people – Michelle (actress Emma Roberts) and Allen (Luke Bracey), have a great time together. Michelle gets serious think about marriage, Allen The wedding scene is very stressful. And he himself does not understand what he is afraid of, because everything is going well. In order not to aggravate the brewing conflict, the young decide to seek advice from their happy in a long-term marriage. parents, and for this they need to be introduced.

This is where the fun begins.

Parents, who are happy married couples, at the next “field tests” turn out to be not only acquaintances with each other, but also in cross-romantic relationships. Skeletons fall out of the closets gradually, but since the happiness of children is at stake, the participants of the “show” respect the decorum, although And are playing a double game. By the end, all the cards are beaten, and the light comedy of the story turns into a somewhat mournful philosophizing about the merits and demerits of marriage and celibacy.

Michael Jacobs wrote his play (then called The Rascals) thirty-five years ago. I think the age of the playwright determined her strengths and weaknesses. The play ran briefly in 1978 at the Biltmore Theater on Broadway and was quickly withdrawn from the repertoire.

Its advantages include adventurism, famously twisted plot, humor (sometimes good). Cons – disadvantage life experience of the author and knowledge of elementary psychology. At the time of writing, the twenty-two-year-old Jacobs did not have much experience in building relationships. Hence the confusion in the heads of mature heroes, who perceive intrigues on the side as a manifestation of personal freedom, and marriage as chains that need to be dragged for some reason. For what? And most importantly, who needs it? Their children have grown up. So start Jacobs led the heroes into the jungle, but he somehow failed to gracefully get out of them.

This film story could have become a passing story at all, if it were not for the brilliant acting quartet, which takes out the film on their shoulders. Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere have already met on the set as a married couple, for example in the movie Let’s Dance. It was a brilliant picture! Here, on the contrary, they had to play lovers, whose union with the hero Gir fed up. Lying in a luxurious bed at the hotel where they are leaving for a romantic weekend, Gere is not going to have sex. He hides behind a newspaper and talks about the difficult political situation in the world.

By the way, the artist himself does not give anything new in this role – we have already seen him like this in Pretty Woman, and in The Runaway Bride, and in The First Knight. But the audience loves Gere, loves his incredible smile, squinting his eyes. love how a good old friend – youth passed with him, and many even grew up on his films.

And here his partner Susan Sarandon in this story is quite unexpected. Her heroine is a burnt bitch, bright, scandalous, threatening her lover, who does not want to try something new in bed and “wasting her time in vain.”

If Gere and Sarandon bring an erotic note to the story, then the second couple, Macy and Keaton, on the contrary, converged on the field of spiritual conversations that both lacked. Although vague and comical attempts to enter into an intimate relationship were also present.

Actor William Macy (the one who regularly comes into the hallway in Pleasantville with the words “Honey, I’m home!”) is already seventy-two years old. His partner Diane Keaton (“Miss Arizona” from the movie “Good Morning”) and does – seventy seven. Her heroine is thin, sad, slightly hunched, but at the moment of meeting with the hero Maisie noticeably comes to life and blossoms.

A lot of comical moments are connected with both ladies in the film, the actresses demonstrate high professionalism and acting contagiousness.

Gere Quartet – Sarandon – Keaton – Macy makes the viewer plunge into nostalgia for the times when these artists were still young and good-looking. But although youth is leaving, the bar of professionalism tends to rise and the performance of the quartet in the film leaves a pleasant aftertaste.

At the same time, questions to the screenwriter himself, who wrote the characters, do not go anywhere. Through the mouths of cheating fathers, Michael Jacobs pushes an insecure Allen into legal marriage. The arguments of the characters in this part of the film are unconvincing (especially against the background of their betrayals), and in some places they are also frankly drawn out. Only the bitchy heroine Susan Sarandon actively dissuades her son from taking a step that he doubts. Apparently, mom sees herself in her future excessively active daughter-in-law – stubborn, conflicting, domineering. Whether Allen will be happy with this is a big question. So the hero doubts the upcoming marriage is not accidental. But there is not a word about this in the tape. A slightly leafy, traditional for Americans happy ending extinguishes flashes of these “inappropriate” thoughts in the bud. Bingo! Everything is fine, everyone is happy.

“Scammers” – they are scammers.

Elena Bulova.

Used footage from the film from the site kino-teatr.ru