lavignebiz1 Mr. and Mrs. Bridge is a fine dramatization of two novels and features one of Paul Newman's finest performances. It introduced us to Kyra Sedgwick and of course, Joanne Woodward gives her usual fine performance (She's the only one who got an Oscar nomination.It's the story of a family in the Kansas City suburbs. When it starts out, the children are in HIgh School, but the film gives each of their stories time to develop. However, for me, the performance that captivates is that of Blythe Danner as India Bridge's best friend, a woman being driven crazy by living in the Kansas City suburbs of the late 1950s and early 1950s. Unhappy, she (SPOILER) becomes a pyromaniac.It's a marvelous movie, worth seeing again if you haven't seen it yet, and if you haven't read them, by all means, do!

writers_reign This is a series of vignettes in the life of a mid-West family rather than a straight ahead narrative, it is, if you like, Meet Me In St Louis without the songs. The form is still viable as the recent French film The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life demonstrated last year. Newman and Woodward are, of course, beyond praise, and it's a delight to see Newman, who can epitomise the extrovert, playing a repressed, buttoned-up type in the best English tradition as written by Terence Rattigan. The film takes its own sweet time getting nowhere and has Art House written all over it so much so that it's difficult to imagine it making it through the first reel in the Multiplexes. Apart from the two leads there's fine support from the likes of Blythe Danner, Kyra Sedgwick and Simon Callow and if peering through a microscope at insects busy doing nothing is your thing then you came to the right place.

AZINDN India and Walter Bridge (Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman) are a conservative, middle-age, upper middle class couple who live in a perfect, mid-western neighborhood with a black housemaid, Harriet, an eagle scout son (Sean Leonard), and two college-age daughters, one who wants to marry a plumber's son instead of finish college, and the other who wants to make it in arts and literature in New York (Kiera Sedgewick). Their values are solid, their views are typical of the period, and appropriate for the kind of existence that was typical American fairy tale 30s society.Learning of sex from a manual, Mrs. Bridges is uneasy to have to explain the facts of life to her son, her daughter on her wedding day, and probably, Mr. Bridge, who loves his wife but can not express his love in that old fashion stoic male way. Mr. Bridge is forthright, honorable, and would never think his actions are anything but above board. He simply never considers there is any other world than the ordered one made of his values, opinions, and standards of propriety. He would never consider his daughter would have an abortion, or even that she would engage in sex outside marriage, nor that his faithful secretary, Julia have a personal life and feelings for him after 20 years of employment.Mrs. Bridge is a housewife, not homemaker, a house wife. Her entire world revolves around the Betty Crocker inspired recipes cooked from scratch for her husband, and served when he walks through the door. She is delighted to see her spouse arrive home every night, is too cheery and inquisitive about her son's new lower class girlfriend, "Paquita," and has never given deep thought a seconds worry. She lives by rules set down for women by her husband. Even when he is trying to explain to her the value of stocks he has laid aside for her future "contingent" on his death, she is girlishly distracted with a small pocket watch that recalls their courting days sitting on the veranda, and verses he too remembers he'd recited to her then. She is grateful for all her husband has given her. He is respectful of her love and devotion.Contrasted with Mrs. Bridges is her close friend Grace (Blythe Danner), a nervous, high spirited and unconventional woman who fights with the hypocrisy of their existence and is a banker's wife. Loud, drinking too much, and setting fire to a car at a party, suicidal Grace is at odds with rigid expectations of her class and society. Slowly loosing her grip she spirals downward which mystifies India who is unable to fathom why she is so dissatisfied and tormented. To Walter, Grace was a critical woman and is condemned as unfit. Her suicide is damaging to her husband in his eyes, and thus, she is worthy of his scorn. To Walter she was unsuitable, but for India, she was beloved and a troubled best friend.A wonderful story of changing social values, and a family in transition, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge is an opportunity to showcase the fantastic performances of the senior citizen, Paul and Joanne Newman, thespians whose early years were as glamorous as Brad and Anglelina today. They are excellent in the roles of individuals likely the age of their own parents, and they present their characters as both sympathetic and tragic. Unable to comprehend the situation of her own dependency, India Bridges is trapped in her own marriage, unable to counsel her own headstrong daughter whose marriage is failing, she is shocked to learn she is seen as a failure by her children. Character, morals, and proper introductions have no place in their 40s WWII era, yet India is never aware how old fashion her ideas have become to her children's lives.

bobbobwhite My first thought upon seeing this depression-era period film was that no one could have ever been so stuffy, stupid, and socially constrained as the middle age/elderly couple played by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. But, then, I remembered that my grandparents were just like them, as were most of their contemporaries. What a limited life they led, and thank god for today's enlightenment.That women could have ever been so totally and willingly dependent, physically and mentally, on their husbands is now hard to imagine, but it did happen and was typical in the days when women did not work outside of the home. The film showed, over and over, dependency scenes that emphasized the helplessness and powerlessness of women in those depression era days. It got real aggravating after a while, but was offset somewhat by Woodward's character's inner goodness and sweetness. She was dumb as a mud fence, though.Newman was terrifically stuffy and dictatorial in his role and Woodward was terrifically dependent, incompetent, weak and stupid in hers. Wonderful work, and they both often had me steaming with their respective behavior, as I put up with a lot of this type of baloney when young. As their daughter, Kyra Sedgewick showed well that the "future" was going to be a lot different for women than the present by her unmistakable signs of emancipated behavior.The film's story was ended so well by Woodward's character getting stuck in her car in her garage, as she was so dependent and ignorant about how to do anything in life for herself that she sat in her car for hours without even trying to figure out a very easy solution to her problem. At the end, she was merely sitting there waiting and calling for many hours for others to "rescue" her from her easily solved predicament(if she only could have had an original thought), just as she had done all her incompetent and dependent life. What a great ending, and a great example of how not to be in real life. Thank god again that things have changed.