John and Mary (1969)

Directed by Peter Yates. Starring Mia Farrow, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Tolan, Stanley Beck, Olympia Dukakis, Tyne Daly. [R]

John (Hoffman) and Mary (Farrow) meet at a bar, hit it off with their overwritten yet stilted comments, and go to bed together; the next morning, the question is: was this a fleeting, one-night thing, or there is something there for a relationship? I didn’t much care, and by the looks of it, neither did Hoffman, who always seems like he’s hurting for a little sleep. Unnatural and uninteresting at nearly every turn, and the camera doesn’t know how to hold them, whether alone or together. A real dud from director Peter Yates, coming in the middle of a fertile period where he made a few top-shelf crime and action pictures (The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Bullitt, etc.). That’s an uncredited Jeff Bridges heard on the soundtrack performing a song he wrote, “Lost in Space”.

36/100