This movie just doesn't work in the end, and that's a real shame because it's got a good premise and stars the greatest of all actresses.
WARNING. SPOILER.
I'll keep it vague, but I can't critique this film without discussing the ending.
Keeping it vague, let's just say that this ending is so "pie in the sky" as to be totally unbelievable. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with "happy endings," but they have to be realistic and this one isn't.
It's a shame, because Jane Fonda is simply the greatest of all actresses. The only other actress who has the same breadth as a dramatist and as a comedienne was Kate Hepburn, and she lacks Jane's emotional depth. Jane's played her "working class feminist" roles as a comedienne in "Nine to Five" where she employs the "facial English" and wide-eyed astonishment of "Cat Ballou." And in one of her greatest films, "The Dollmaker," she plays the "working class feminist" dramatically in a film that has a "happy ending" but one that's also realistic.
I see "Stanley and Iris" as the third in Jane's "working class feminist" trilogy, and it really is a shame that it's spoiled by a fairy-tale ending. The premise is really interesting, that Iris is just in such a funk of a depression and suffering from such low self-esteem after her husband's death that she winds up in a dead-end factory job and allows herself to be used by a no-good-nik brother-in-law who sponges off Iris and abuses her sister. That Stanley's caught in dead-end jobs because of his illiteracy. That Stanley and Iris finally make it together and that with Iris's help Stanley achieves some modicum of success.
But keep the ending realistic. That's where "The Dollmaker" succeeds and "Stanley and Iris" fails. I can't say more without creating too much of a spoiler.
WARNING. SPOILER.
I'll keep it vague, but I can't critique this film without discussing the ending.
Keeping it vague, let's just say that this ending is so "pie in the sky" as to be totally unbelievable. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with "happy endings," but they have to be realistic and this one isn't.
It's a shame, because Jane Fonda is simply the greatest of all actresses. The only other actress who has the same breadth as a dramatist and as a comedienne was Kate Hepburn, and she lacks Jane's emotional depth. Jane's played her "working class feminist" roles as a comedienne in "Nine to Five" where she employs the "facial English" and wide-eyed astonishment of "Cat Ballou." And in one of her greatest films, "The Dollmaker," she plays the "working class feminist" dramatically in a film that has a "happy ending" but one that's also realistic.
I see "Stanley and Iris" as the third in Jane's "working class feminist" trilogy, and it really is a shame that it's spoiled by a fairy-tale ending. The premise is really interesting, that Iris is just in such a funk of a depression and suffering from such low self-esteem after her husband's death that she winds up in a dead-end factory job and allows herself to be used by a no-good-nik brother-in-law who sponges off Iris and abuses her sister. That Stanley's caught in dead-end jobs because of his illiteracy. That Stanley and Iris finally make it together and that with Iris's help Stanley achieves some modicum of success.
But keep the ending realistic. That's where "The Dollmaker" succeeds and "Stanley and Iris" fails. I can't say more without creating too much of a spoiler.