Writer-producer Sidney Buchman nearly pulls off the heady task of adapting Mary McCarthy's well-loved novel to the screen, despite insurmountable story obstacles, a self-defeating length, and a persistent claim from professional critics at the time that maybe a female screenwriter should have been hired instead to adapt McCarthy's prose (Pauline Kael was the most vocal in this area). Some of the dialog will take you back to a different time. This organization, while claiming to have rescued thousands of teens from the ... View production, box office, & company info. This undercuts the potential power of the final scenes. Just enjoy it for what it is...a couple (plus) hours of fun & involving storytelling, great performances, great clothes, & goofy upper-crust female bonding. Together with anal bass player GB, cross-dressing drummer Dee and Jennifer their loyal manager, they begin a journey to stardom. In 1968 New York City - when being gay was still considered to be best kept behind closed doors - a group of friends gather for a raucous birthday party hosted by Michael (Jim Parsons), a screenwriter who spends and drinks too much, in honor of the sharp-dressed and sharp-tongued Harold (Zachary Quinto). It's got a definite soap-opera feel & the performances get a bit cartoony here & there, but this movie is a JOY.

Based on the Mary McCarthy book and also featuring Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight and, in a brief bit of high-energy, Carrie Nye. Jim Parsons is just an amazing actor as is Zachary Quinto who captured Michal and Harold with intensity and focus. The cast, as good as they were, were spouting lines as though it was a local Amateur dramatics night - the worst was the actor who played Sloane. At any rate, a good escapist film, which I would not completely dismiss as soap opera, since there are skilled actors and some worthwhile dialog. Emhardt's performance is perhaps the most enjoyable to me since he talks up a storm and says such inappropriately funny lines! It must have been fairly controversial when first released what with it's reference to lesbianism and breast-feeding. In summary, The Group perhaps comes on a bit fast at the beginning to really get an understanding of what's going on and who these people are but eventually it slows down enough that you do get to know and mostly like these people as the film progresses. A poor script, directed by Sidney Lumet, looses the social observation and satiric tone of Mary McCarthy's novel turning it into a glossy, breezy, soap opera. A leisurely day belies its uninvited end as Jay and Alex, best friends and roommates, challenge one another on their opinions of sexuality. When this movie first debuted the NY Times' Bosley Crowther rightfully panned it, but several other critics gave it good reviews. A real grapling with female experience in heady times - from Roosevelt's election to the outbreak of World War Two - is jettisoned in favour of caricature, stereotype, Eugene O'Neill-type melodramatics, shrieking, timidity, evasion, and pretty pastel colours. Jessica Walter and Shirley Knight gave best value in their parts but the whole thing was very segmented and there seemed little flow in the story. abortions, marriage, sexual experimentation, flirtations with - ooh! Extraordinarily bad. - is filmed with a lot of cinematic huffpuff, that cannot conceal its Beatrix Potter-like cuddly quaintness.

Controversial issues are the subject of "The Group," which is why the oblique way they're treated is so disappointing. All the girls are great, but Jessica Walter is outstanding as she changes from self-assured sexy-romantic to a gossiping sexually repressed Bitch! I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that the Richard Mulligan and Joan Hackett characters were awkward to each other but the actors would eventually marry in real life not long after. . With Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight. After graduating from a prestigious Eastern university, eight devoted women friends go their separate ways: one leaves for Europe, while the others experience troubled relationships. You'd think being more educated than the average women of their generation, they'd be...well, INTERESTING. But beneath her stylish exterior lurks a growing darkness. and A.I.D.S. but this film is interesting for the cast, and the time period it depicts. The group dynamics have a certain appeal, but without a deeper understanding of any of the characters I could not develop an emotional attachment to any of them. This revision of that film with a 2020 cast was every bit as powerful and poignant, with an excellent direction by Joe Mantelo. Joan Hackett, Joanna Pettet, Larry Hagman (as her alcoholic husband), Hal Holbrook, James Broderick, Jessica Walter (as swinging single gossip in the NY publishing world), Kathleen Widdoes, Carrie Nye, Elizabeth Hartman and several other notable appearances make for an interesting cast. Or if another was a lesbian? Add the first question. Considering what they had to work with . This FAQ is empty. She also willingly suffers a father (Robert Emhardt) who's eventually diagnosed as manic depressive. Candice Bergen, Shirley Knight, Elizabeth Hartman, these are all stage trained actresses, and the lovely Joan Hackett who died much too soon but while she was here always gave a top notch performance. It took me a while to absorb enough of the personalities of the eight women to distinguish them and, between the women and their lovers and husbands, you never get to know anyone with much more depth than identifying a dominant personality characteristic. At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths. . The Gay men's community has been a work in progress and Mark Crowley wrote this decades before liberation, AIDS, gay marriage, wrote this when being gay was a crime. The large cast with Pettet, Bergen and Hackett making their film debuts doesn't have a chance to create cohesive characterizations with Larry Hagman as the despicable Harold and Carrie Nye as the vindictive Norine making the strongest impression. Ugh! Not unwatchable, but you feel as if everyone involved is just going through the motions.

Lumet, director of Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express and Prince of the City is one of the most underappreciated and neglected of all American filmmakers, and is to be admired for attempting to step out of his comfort zone, but unfortunately, The Group could have been titled The Whiz because even at 2 hours and 30 minutes the film feels rushed and hurried with characters, and there are a lot of them, always rushing in and out of scenes. There's a lot of melodrama, backstabbing, bitchiness, and enough male-bashing to make you cringe. The group dynamics have a certain appeal, but without a deeper understanding of any of the characters I could not develop an emotional attachment to any of them. At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.

The first time gave a muddled impression and it was difficult to understand what it was about. A must-see. If you haven't seen PATCH OF BLUE yet, stop reading this, go to Amazon or wherever and buy the DVD for $10. As a young gay man coming out before Stonewall, I saw the original movie and was blown away with the intensity and truth in this film. Oh, and Candice Bergen, for all her reputation of not being much of an actress during her early career, acquits herself nicely among her more trained co-stars in the few scenes she has here. Sex and the City With Its Thinking Cap On, Sidney Lumet's The Group takes Mary McCarthy's novel and puts enough of it on film to make a compelling enough drama.
I stuck it out for 45 minutes shaking my head at what I perceived to be the most muddled script in the history of film. From Saint Maud to The Wicker Man here are some British horror movies that are certain to keep you looking over your shoulder for weeks to come. Other partygoers include Donald (Matt Bomer), Michael's former flame, now mired in self-analysis; Larry (Andrew Rannells), a randy commercial artist living with Hank (Tuc Watkins), a school teacher who has just left his wife; Bernard (Michael Benjamin Washington), a librarian tiptoeing around fraught codes of friendship alongside Emory (Robin de Jesús), a decorator who never holds back; and a guileless hustler (Charlie Carver) hired to be Harold's gift for the night.


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