Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

HotToastyRag As Billy Crystal quipped during his Oscar presentation song, "Did this film direct itself?" Barbra Streisand, producer, director, and leading lady in The Prince of Tides was almost completely snubbed at the Academy Awards in 1992. The film was up for Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress for Kate Nelligan, Music, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, and Art Direction, but she wasn't honored for her beautiful directing. From the opening scene, it's clear a professional with a vision is at the helm. Nick Nolte narrates through a scene of his childhood: he and his siblings run from home while their parents are fighting, jump off the dock into the water, and hold hands in a circle. "We found a silent soothing world where there was no pain. A world without mothers or fathers. We would make a circle bound by flesh and blood and water and only when we felt our lungs betray us would we rise towards the light." Three little heads pop up from the water's surface, and the opening titles start. It's truly beautiful. There are so many scenes in The Prince of Tides that are moving and memorable, and they greatly outshine the less-than-stellar elements of the film. While Barbra Streisand isn't given very good lines to say-she plays a therapist, and she says things no therapist would ever say-Nick Nolte's performance in her office makes everyone forget her side of the conversation. He plays a family man whose family life isn't particularly stable. He's spent a lifetime burying the secrets of the past, but when his twin sister tries to commit suicide, he travels from South Carolina to New York City and meets his sister's therapist. He and Barbra frequently clash, and while he is given very good lines to say, the way he says them is even better than they were written. He's quick to raise his voice, and when he does, it's clear he's releasing decades of pent-up emotion through his throat. Even when he's being a loving father to his three children, you can see the unresolved tension on his face. You'd think it would be impossible to play against Nick's powerful performance and not give a very good one, but Blythe Danner proves my supposition wrong. She looks very pretty and has an absolutely adorable hairdo, but her acting leaves much to be desired. Then again, when you're watching Nick Nolte-who lost the gold to Anthony Hopkins for sixteen minutes of The Silence of the Lambs-you don't really care about Blythe Danner. Kate Nelligan, who plays Nick's mother, does do a very good job, so if you're a fan, you might want to see her only Oscar-nominated performance.Normally, I don't really like movies that flash back and forth between the present and the past, but it's only because most directors don't handle the transitions very well. Barbra masters the difficult task, and every time the film flashes back to Nick's childhood, it's in an inventive, intriguing style. The "dual timeline" narrative is extremely popular nowadays, so if you like that style, you'll be in a great position to appreciate this marvelously crafted film. Before you rent it, though, just know that it's very heavy. You'll probably need to bring your Kleenexes, and you'll feel unsettled more than once. You might not want to watch this with your parents, and you should definitely put the kids to bed before movie night starts. It's extremely heavy.Kiddy warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to upsetting situations involving children and adult material, I wouldn't let my kids watch this movie. Also, there may or may not be a rape scene.

thinker1691 The novel upon which this movie is based, was written by Pat Conroy. If you read the novel first, you'll learn, the film is very close to the literally version, perhaps, too close. The story follows Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte) on the way to the hospital where his sister Savannah, (Melinda Dillon) is a patient, having tried to commit suicide. There, Tom is asked by a Psychiatrist‎ (Barbra Streisand) to help her fathom the reasons why his sister has twice tried to kill herself. During the private sessions which follow, Tom, reluctantly becomes his sister's painful childhood memories. While this helps the doctor understand her patient's background, it also allows Tom to understand why the doctor too, is so unhappy with her marriage. His tragic memories, as well as those of his sister and their family, delves into the very horror of a Southern family troubles, living in a section of a deep river plantation. Every family has secrets which cause intense pain, but when exposed to a listening audience it is chilling to see them exposed Raw and bared to all. The movie is slow to enlighten the listener, but when the movie exposes all, it's patently horrifying and tragic. The cast members which include Blythe Danner, Jeroen Krabbé, Jason Gould and the late George Carlin, make this story all the more real. Easily recommended, but only to the thick skinned. ****

vincentlynch-moonoi For me, the pleasure of watching this film again, now in 2012, is remembering just how fine an actor Nick Nolte was before he (well, I'll put it politely) "let himself go" (although my favorite performance of his was "Jefferson In Paris". But, this is a close second.Here, Nolte plays a teacher/football coach from the South Carolina coast, who is asked by his mother to go to New York City to help his sister, who has again attempted suicide. There, he works with his sister's psychiatrist -- Barbra Streisand -- to try to determine was leads the sister to her attempts at self-destruction. In sessions, Streisand plumbs the dysfunctional family in which Nolte and his sister grew up. A moderate number of flashbacks are used, some somewhat disturbing, and an abusive father and a weird mother. Meanwhile, Nolte's own marriage is dissolving. And, just to make it real fun, Nolte and Streisand develop feelings for each other. Finally, Nick reveals to Streisand that as a teen, 3 escaped convicts raped him and mother and his sister, and that his older brother shot 2 of the convicts, while his mother stabbed the other. The shock of the film is...well, best to let you discover that. Will Nick stay with Barbra? Will the sister recover? It's an excellent story by Pat Conroy, and it's difficult not to draw parallels with the kinds of work that Lillian Hellman once wrote.As I indicated earlier, Nick Nolte is superb...perhaps his finest performance. I was not as impressed with Barbra Streisand's acting here. Not that it was bad. It was fine. But I didn't quite buy into her as a psychiatrist, though I thought her scenes at the dinner party segment and her romantic scenes were excellent. And, I say that as someone who generally enjoyed her in film portrayals, and I actually feel she should have made far more motion pictures. But, I give her immense credit here for here work as producer and director and the film.Though not a large part, George Carlin is very good playing a "quite" gay friend of the sister's. All the actors do a nice job here, and it is worth noting that Barbra's son in the film really is Barbra's son.This is an excellent film with a sensitive performance by a once great actor -- Nick Nolte.

ianlouisiana Mr J.Crabbe has every right to be put out at Mr Nick Nolte for sequestering his wife's affections and the dinner - party scene where he plays "Dixie" on his Stradivarius whilst looking Mr Nolte right in the eye gives the lie to the musicians' myth that classical instrumentalists are unable to "fake" even tunes as simple as "Happy Birthday to you".Finishing with a flourish,Mr Crabbe then says in Al Jolson style "That's what I like about the South". Instead of challenging him to a duel as any Southern Gentleman might,Mr Nolte merely holds Mr Crabbe's fiddle out over the balcony in a fit of pique. There is a little of a "Hick from the sticks" quality about Mr Nolte as he arrives in the Big Apple to see his twin sister who is recovering from a suicide attempt.He appears never to have met gay people before,nor rude cab drivers and is a long way from the "New York State of Mind" that the city's denizens are so proud of. Then he meets his sister's shrink (Miss B. Streisand)whom he later refers to as a "Manhattan Jew".We never actually see the shrink and her patient in the same scene,but gradually Miss Streisand sets her on the long path to recovery (at 150 bucks an hour one would hope not too long) and at the same time persuades a reluctant Mr Nolte to reveal some horrifying secrets from their family's past. I'm fairly sure the A.M.A. has rules about the conduct of medical professionals towards patients and their relatives but does Miss Streisand give a fig?Clearly not as she seduces an obviously confused and vulnerable Mr Nolte.(Although not as confused and vulnerable as Mr Redford had been in "The Way We Were"). Eventually he is stricken by conscience and returns to his wife and daughters - oh,didn't I mention them?How remiss of me - but,obviously,never gets over Miss Streisand,muttering her name as he drives home every night from work.Get over it Nick - it would never have worked. "The Prince of Tides" is the sort of movie Taylor and Burton could have made 40 years ago and we would have laughed uproariously at the silliness of it all,but Mr Nolte and Miss Streisand go for "serious" and ,apart from the soft - focus love scenes,achieve it more often than not.Mr Nolte in particular excels as the jock with well - hidden secrets.He conveys brilliantly the ostensibly bluff and tough Southern male who has spent thirty years in denial. Miss Blythe Danner is equally good in the small and rather thankless part of his wife. Miss Streisand,actor,producer,director,singer,writer and all - round Rennaissance Woman may well have a big ego,but my goodness she's entitled. She was unlikely to have pleased devotees of Mr Conroy's novel but she has made a film that should be judged on its own merits.