The Way We Were (1973)

Directed by Sydney Pollack. Starring Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Lois Chiles, Bradford Dillman, Patrick O’Neal, Allyn Ann McLerie, Herb Edelman, Viveca Lindfors, Murray Hamilton. [PG]

She’s a radical leftist Jew who’s slavishly devoted to social causes; he’s a jock WASP writer with little interest in political opinions; these are the misty watercolor memories of the way they were. Melodramatic love story tries to be both classy and maudlin in its approach, but never sorts out its priorities or makes a convincing case for any of its distracted story threads. The clichéd “opposites attract” dynamic is undersold, and because of flat chemistry between the leads and a heap of frustrating story holes, the only thing holding their rocky romance together is the acknowledgment that they’re the glamorous stars, so they must go together. Evidence of revisions is apparent, with the film being awkwardly edited in such a way that it’s hard to tell scene-by-scene where the characters are in terms of their ages, relationships, and geography (the story covers about two decades’ worth of ground, yet the only change to the actors’ appearances is her hairstyle), and the indistinct Marxist and blacklisting content is as hopelessly muddled as the abrupt series of events leading up to the finale and postscript (as inevitable as they are inexplicable). Marvin Hamlisch picked up a couple of Oscar statuettes for the score and title tune (lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman). James Woods makes a few brief appearances in an early film role.

44/100