Though it has its strong points, this film is hard to enjoy because of the unmitigated unlikability of its main character.
George Segal plays the time-traveling Blume, hopscotching between present and past experiences with his wife, Nina (Susan Anspatch), whom he claims to adore but treats anywhere on the spectrum between callously and criminally. He's obnoxious, and we don't buy it when she takes the jerk back, despite the romantic backdrop of Piazza San Marco in Venice.
There are other aspects of this film that make it a chestnut. Blume's sexual harassment of his secretary is off-the-charts, and Nina also breaks professional boundaries by bedding Elmo, her client from down at the welfare office, played, admittedly, with great charm by Kris Kristofferson. He's the best thing about this turkey, but gets way too little screen time.
This movie is too long by half, and shows us that even in 1973, virtue signaling was a thing. How else to explain the appearance of United Farm Workers singing a union song? The scene has no discernible connection with anything else in the film.
The scenes between Blume and his psychiatrist are stultifyingly dull and do nothing to move the story along. More time is wasted with an overemoting Shelley Winters, Marsha Mason, and some hippie types who swing.
I realized too late that I had this glorified soap confused with "The Public Eye" of the year before, which shares some thematic elements. Now that's one I'll watch for on TCM...
George Segal plays the time-traveling Blume, hopscotching between present and past experiences with his wife, Nina (Susan Anspatch), whom he claims to adore but treats anywhere on the spectrum between callously and criminally. He's obnoxious, and we don't buy it when she takes the jerk back, despite the romantic backdrop of Piazza San Marco in Venice.
There are other aspects of this film that make it a chestnut. Blume's sexual harassment of his secretary is off-the-charts, and Nina also breaks professional boundaries by bedding Elmo, her client from down at the welfare office, played, admittedly, with great charm by Kris Kristofferson. He's the best thing about this turkey, but gets way too little screen time.
This movie is too long by half, and shows us that even in 1973, virtue signaling was a thing. How else to explain the appearance of United Farm Workers singing a union song? The scene has no discernible connection with anything else in the film.
The scenes between Blume and his psychiatrist are stultifyingly dull and do nothing to move the story along. More time is wasted with an overemoting Shelley Winters, Marsha Mason, and some hippie types who swing.
I realized too late that I had this glorified soap confused with "The Public Eye" of the year before, which shares some thematic elements. Now that's one I'll watch for on TCM...