Romantic-minded vehicle for Robert De Niro and Jane Fonda, doesn't really work, isn't very good, and yet the performances are so lovely that one wants to give the picture a pass on personality alone. Fonda does terrific work as a blue-collar widow who has shut-down sexually after the death of her husband; De Niro (alert and handsome) is an illiterate short-order cook (and closet-inventor!) who asks her for help. This adaptation of Pat Barker's novel "Union Street" (a better title) is so low-keyed--and with a sketchy narrative--that even when the tender moments finally do arrive, the audience barely stirs. Director Martin Ritt and screenwriters Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch give their stars some good scenes with tough dialogue, but the serious issues here (his illiteracy, her dead-end job) are just plot mechanisms for the ensuing love story. The finale is pure fluff, which cynics will find difficult to swallow, though these two characters deserve a happy ending and the movie wouldn't really be satisfying any other way. **1/2 from ****
Review of Stanley & Iris
