Loving (1970 film)

Loving

DVD Cover
Directed by Irvin Kershner
Produced by Don Devlin
Screenplay by Don Devlin
Based on Brooks Wilson Ltd.
by J.M. Ryan
Starring George Segal
Eva Marie Saint
Sterling Hayden
Keenan Wynn
Nancie Phillips
Janis Young
David Doyle
Paul Sparer
Andrew Duncan
Sherry Lansing
Roland Winters
Edgar Stehli
Music by Bernardo Segall
Cinematography Gordon Willis
Edited by Robert Lawrence
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • March 4, 1970 (1970-03-04)
Running time
 89 minutes
Language English

Loving is a 1970 American comedy film released by Columbia Pictures and directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on the novel Brooks Wilson Ltd. written by pulp magazine illustrator John McDermott under his pen name, J. M. Ryan. The movie starred George Segal in the title role of a philandering NYC illustrator and Eva Marie Saint as his wife. The cast also included Sterling Hayden, David Doyle, Keenan Wynn, Roy Scheider and future 20th Century Fox president Sherry Lansing, among others.

Synopsis

Brooks Wilson (George Segal) is a busy man, juggling his work as a commercial artist with a marriage to Selma (Eva Marie Saint) and two young daughters. He also has a girlfriend on the side named Grace (Janis Young) who wants him to commit to her, but he cannot do it.

Brooks is trying desperately to land an elusive account from Lepridon (Sterling Hayden), but this is seeming harder to achieve than he thought. One evening they attend a party at a grand Connecticut home. Feeling his life is falling apart, Brooks seduces flirty Nelly (Nancie Phillips), wife of his associate Will (David Doyle). They go to a children's playhouse outside the main house, and their indiscretions are caught on closed-circuit television. Selma and Will are devastated. Brooks and Will fall into a fist-fight. After the commotion dies down, the harried Brooks tells Selma that he finally landed the Lepridon account. She smacks him with her handbag, and they stare at each other in silence, seeing their marriage honestly for the first time.

Cast

Critical reception

The film has generally been well received by critics. Steven Scheuer found the film "quietly intense" and "humorous, human, and insightful", but found the film's final scene "incongruous in its farcical mayhem," (Scheuer, 1990: 641). On the other hand, Leonard Maltin found the film's climax "superb" and praised the director on his "great feeling for day-to-day detail [of the characters' lives]" (Maltin, 1991: 730).

Roger Ebert found the film "an amusing and intelligent comedy of manners" (Ebert, 1970) with a great central performance by George Segal. Clive Hirschhorn noted that while the film was "well-observed", and was truly "Segal's film", it was still "uneven" in content (Hirschhorn, 1989: 285). Perhaps the review that most sums up the film comes from Leslie Halliwell, "smart New York sex comedy, typical of many but better than most," (Halliwell, 2000: 496).

See also

References

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