experimenting with conventionality

Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990)
4 Stars
Directed by James Ivory
Starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward

A drama with almost no drama, about the two most boring people you'll ever meet. It's so thoroughly uninteresting a story, I relegated it to background noise after only a few minutes. But by about fifteen minutes in, it got my attention, and I had to rewind to the beginning.

You see, the experiment here is of a movie that relies solely on acting. Newman and Woodward's real-life marriage was in its thirty-second year during filming; Woodward was 60, Newman 65. They're still an attractive couple here — not least due to the striking pale blue eyes they share — but they are decades past the point where they can rely on their looks. Instead, Newman puts in a fine performance, while Woodward shows just why she beat her husband to the Oscar by twenty-eight years. She was nominated again for Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, but lost to Kathy Bates' notorious Sledgehammer Annie.

All in all, a shining example of early Miramax before it fell back on a formula.