Stanley Cox (Robert DeNiro) is a great guy. He is kind-hearted, loyal, a hard worker, totally honest and intelligent. He is also kindly to his aging father whom he must put into a nursing home. There is only one problem. He can't read or write. That apparently happened because he slept through school and nobody bothered to wake him up, assuming he was just another dummy with no future ahead of him. That is until Iris King (Jane Fonda) comes along. This hard-working factory worker, a widow with a troubled family, takes an interest in his plight, and takes it upon herself to teach him how to read and write, falling in love in the process while getting over the memory of her late husband.
There is really little plot and not a sensible reason as to why Stanley has never learned to read and write. When Iris accidentally costs Stanley his job by revealing to his boss the truth about him, you really don't believe that she wouldn't stand up and fight for him. Stanley isn't an innocent like Dustin Hoffman's character in "Rain Man" or dim-witted like Lon Chaney's character in "Of Mice and Men"; He is a normal "Joe" whom I just couldn't believe would never leave his neighborhood or be able to purchase anything if he can't read or write, let alone count money or know what denomination he is giving a cashier. There is little information on how he has survived up until then, and that is where the film looses credibility.
Where it becomes entertaining is that the two characters are totally likable. It is very interesting to see these two Oscar Winning stars together in spite of the fact that Fonda publicly denounced "The Deer Hunter", the Oscar Winning Vietnam film from 1978 that starred DeNiro the very same year that Fonda won her Oscar for the anti-war "Coming Home". There is also little impact in the story with Fonda's family, which includes her troubled sister (Swoosie Kurtz, most of whose role must have been left on the cutting room floor) and her young daughter (Martha Plimpton). In a nice small role, "The Drew Carey Show's" Kathy Kinney plays one of Fonda's co-workers.
I really wanted to like this more than just your average "Hallmark" type movie. There is absolutely nothing offensive in it, and only two scenes that are even mildly disturbing-one the opening where DeNiro comes to Fonda's rescue after her purse is snatched on the bus, and the other the slap that Kurtz gets from her struggling husband. How many movies of the past 30 years can claim that they simply are showing life without all the ugliness surrounding it? Maybe that's the film's problem. It is all too nice and wrapped up neatly rather than brought to a more dramatic head.
There is really little plot and not a sensible reason as to why Stanley has never learned to read and write. When Iris accidentally costs Stanley his job by revealing to his boss the truth about him, you really don't believe that she wouldn't stand up and fight for him. Stanley isn't an innocent like Dustin Hoffman's character in "Rain Man" or dim-witted like Lon Chaney's character in "Of Mice and Men"; He is a normal "Joe" whom I just couldn't believe would never leave his neighborhood or be able to purchase anything if he can't read or write, let alone count money or know what denomination he is giving a cashier. There is little information on how he has survived up until then, and that is where the film looses credibility.
Where it becomes entertaining is that the two characters are totally likable. It is very interesting to see these two Oscar Winning stars together in spite of the fact that Fonda publicly denounced "The Deer Hunter", the Oscar Winning Vietnam film from 1978 that starred DeNiro the very same year that Fonda won her Oscar for the anti-war "Coming Home". There is also little impact in the story with Fonda's family, which includes her troubled sister (Swoosie Kurtz, most of whose role must have been left on the cutting room floor) and her young daughter (Martha Plimpton). In a nice small role, "The Drew Carey Show's" Kathy Kinney plays one of Fonda's co-workers.
I really wanted to like this more than just your average "Hallmark" type movie. There is absolutely nothing offensive in it, and only two scenes that are even mildly disturbing-one the opening where DeNiro comes to Fonda's rescue after her purse is snatched on the bus, and the other the slap that Kurtz gets from her struggling husband. How many movies of the past 30 years can claim that they simply are showing life without all the ugliness surrounding it? Maybe that's the film's problem. It is all too nice and wrapped up neatly rather than brought to a more dramatic head.