Alan Alda has written and directed a few films in his career, and this one might be the best known. Since I listen to his podcast and he had a rerun of the Carol Burnett episode recently, the film entered my radar, and I thought I'd give it a watch. During the podcast, Burnett mentioned that she tweaked her part to make it feel more "real" from a woman's perspective. I was looking for the scene, and I guess it was the one where Jack (Alda) calls Kate (Burnett) "perfect." That's surprising, though, because that's exactly what Jack would call Kate. Kate doesn't want to be called perfect, though, because that's burdensome and in some ways dehumanizes her.
Basically, the film follows three friend couples through one year -- four seasons -- of their friendship. To work a little better, I think maybe instead of four back-to-back seasons, the movie should have followed them through four figurative seasons -- from friendship's beginning through to either its end, or if not end, then its later stages.
What the film does is begin with the premise of friend couples. They're all close friends -- they go to dinner together and they go on trips together. But they go as couples. As far as we know, the men aren't simply friends with the men, and the women aren't just friends with the women. Also, they have conversations about how they met and why they're friends. Do they have much in common, or did they simply meet through some sort of work-related reason? I found all of that interesting, as well as Jack's early toast, which celebrates the idea that they have been able to maintain the friendships, but more than that, they have been able to maintain their marriages -- it seems like an important part of their friendships -- maintaining their marriages.
Unfortunately, one of the guys, Nick (Len Cariou), has decided he isn't happy in his marriage, and now believes he never has been. When he breaks the news to his wife and picks up a new girlfriend, it leads to a whole series of questions -- not only how it will affect his life moving forward, but also how it will affect the life of his college daughter, his former wife, and his relationship with the other remaining married couples.
Maybe I feel like too much happens too quickly, or that we don't really get to see how anyone acts alone or outside of the four brief moments when everyone is together. It's tough, I'm sure, for Alda to try to find a way to balance everything that should be included in the film without turning it into a miniseries. At the same time, the whole vibe of "let me see you express your anger," is weird and ultimately a little tiring. Maybe we just see each individual couple at their worst, as they are pressed to perform in "special event" circumstances and not everyday life.
That also might be what's wrong with Nick. He wants every second of life to me meaningful and exciting, but most days are not that. Most days are average Wednesday afternoons. And maybe there's nothing wrong with that?
This is more or less a "midlife crisis" movie. If you're in your 40s, maybe you can relate to it more. These are all couples who have "made it," but then they start wondering, "Is that it?" And Danny (Jack Weston), being a few years older and maybe not in the best of health, is also starting to worry about not just midlife but end life. What will it be like to face death? Have they lived as much as they could live? And as Kate worries, will they have to face death alone, or with just a spouse by their side? It's funny, because Kate wants it both ways, as we all often do. She wants to have close friends who will always be there, but she always wants space. She wants to be just with her spouse sometimes, and maybe, she would like to find a way to be just by herself sometimes --- but she wants to be the one who decides or at least has options.
This film does feel slightly dated, or early 80s, but that's not a bad thing. It's a "talky" movie, for sure, and as I said, some of the "emotional" focus annoyed me, and I did find myself thinking of ways that I wanted to tweak and rewrite the timeline. Tiny Fey apparently did a Netflix revamp as an 8-episode series in 2025. I haven't seen it, but I would have the extra time worked for the four seasons concept -- 2 episodes per season maybe? Did that series show more of the individuals and the couples outside of the "special" vacation moments?
Rating: 4/5 stars
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