edwagreen What a wonderful 1991 film this is. It explores the relationships within the family.After being rejected by her boyfriend at her sister's wedding, Holly Hunter meets Richard Dreyfuss by chance and love blossoms from the first second. Problem is that the Dreyfuss character, a free spirit with a golden heart, goes overboard and gets off to a bad start with Hunter's parents, Danny Aiello and Gena Rowlands.Dreyfuss means well, but his persistence is overwhelming and causes a family fracas.As is so true to life, it takes a major illness to resolve things.This is a marvelous story of found and lost love.

WarpedRecord Lasse Hallström's first American film has a structure that is both refreshing and frustrating. Is "Once Around" a light romantic comedy? A melodrama? A tragedy? Most likely, it is all of the above.Holly Hunter stars as Renata, an unlucky-in-love Bostonian who falls for Sam (Richard Dreyfuss), a smooth-talking salesman who is similar to her parents in age but worlds away from them in personality. Conflicts arise when Sam, a strong-willed Lithuanian, forces his beliefs on Renata's equally strong-willed Italian parents, Joe and Marilyn, played by Gena Rowlands and Danny Aiello.The performances are excellent, though Hunter's exaggerated New England accent is a distraction at times. Aiello keeps his cool in a role that could easily have lent itself to overacting, and as a special bonus, he sings — quite well, I might add. A scene with Marilyn castigating Sam at a funeral stands as an example of the pivotal performances Rowlands delivers even when she's a supporting character. Renata and Sam's relationship takes some rather stagy turns, and some of Sam's disputes with Renata's family seem a bit contrived, but "Once Around" is worthwhile for its outstanding ensemble cast.

missygoldstein SPOILERS!!!!!I've seen this movie several times now and if it's ever on I cannot helpmyself from watching it again all the way through as I did 2 nights ago.This is the story of a very close knit Italian family living in Boston(love the accents). The youngest daughter, Renatta (holly hunter) wasjust dumped by her boyfriend who pretty much told her that he'd nevermarry her, and that she's just not good/smart enough. She needs a majorlife change and decides to go down to some tropical island where she isgoing to learn how to sell time share condos. This is where she meetsSam (Richard Dreyfus) who is the epitome a salesman; cocky, confident,obnoxious, and pushy, but also very sweet. He falls for Renattaimmediately showers her with attention, compliments, love, and affectionlike she's never experienced in her life. They fall head over heals inlove with each other, but the problem is her family who does not want toaccept this guy. His brassy, abrasive style does not go over well at allin her parents home and it begins to cause all kinds of problems in thefamily. This is a story of a woman who is able to feel confident and grown upfor the first time in her life as a result of being loved by someoneoutside her family and having the maturity and courage to stand by theman she loves at the risk of losing her family. Because of Sams love sheis able to develop a much better sense of self and identity that givesher the stregth and courage to go on even in the face of tragedy andloss. This film makes me cry buckets every time, bu

Oskado An extremely well-crafted script developing a wide range of individual psychologies within an extended family, together with good casting and acting make this an exceptional film. None of the characters is, to my taste, naturally attractive or charismatic, but as personalities striving to maintain stability in their lives, they are fascinating and fuel a continual dramatic tension. Dreyfuss plays the most enigmatic character, the one "tearing apart" the family, and so has the central role, but his past remains a mystery. When we first encounter him he is alone, a man in his sixties perhaps, staring out over the sea, with behind him a divorce only recently finalized. He delivers a materialistic and self-gratifying speech, with horrifically inappropriate humor, to a flock of aspiring condominium salespeople and proceeds to "fall in love" and quickly marry the immature "baby" member of the film's subject family. But behind his frequently obnoxious salesman's rhetoric and showy possessions, just who is he, and what are his motives? Why did his prior marriage fail? What scars does he bear from the 40s, when he was born in Lithuania and somehow escaped with at least his mother for the States? While looking out over the sea was he contemplating suicide? Was suicide in his mind when he met the simpleton girl on a rooftop with no guard rail and opted to grab on to her for help? His background is eclipsed behind the family's bourgeois Italian-American heritage, as though only Italian ethos can matter, or can be stylishly accepted - so he's given little opportunity to explain. Otherwise, the emptiness and tactlessness of his impromptu speeches seem to underscore an ingrained sense of the absurd and perhaps of despair. Dreyfuss' character has large gaps, gaping scars - like the ragged edges of a piece of a puzzle, a piece that fits perfectly into the poorly developed, ragged edges of the family's youngest and otherwise socially inept and professionally helpless daughter. Together they form a whole - not necessarily people we'd like to know or befriend, but - but they drive the film to a dramatic climax. As said, this film develops the characters of a extended family - not just the two above. This is a film well worth seeing and thinking about - and it seemed to me, just off and on (and in some close-ups) a little Swedish in its sensitivity.