Word: benjamin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...unsteady pastiche takes its place. For instance, Sigmund Freud (Sir Alec Guinness) pops up from time to time as Benjamin's mystical mentor, constantly reminding him of his breaches in psychiatric practice as well as his own unstable state of mind. Freud's witty, satirical comments do not ring true, though; instead, they remind us of Humphrey Bogart's advice to Woody Allen throughout Play It Again, Sam. Similar takeoffs from other films dot the rest of Lovesick as well, including Moore's sequences of drunkenness that mirror those in Arthur two years...
...BENJAMIN'S DEVELOPING PASSION for his patient. Chloe, follows the usual pattern for middle-aged men who lust after beautiful, available young women. His marriage gets shoved into nebulous dimensions and isn't brought back until late in the movie, when it turns out that his wife too is having an affair. Immorality as an issue never comes up: Benjamin's seduction of Chloe seems not only hackneyed but the norm for society as a whole...
...most of his patients is filled with the actor's typical English bawdiness. His movements and lines seem overly staged, however, especially a clumsy sequence which places the doctor in Chloe's shower. Moore specializes in nincompoop bumbling, so such inevitably stupid scenes crop up frequently. One dinner Benjamin has with the board of psychiatrists contains a few funny lines, but the characters speaking them--including the victimized doctor--come across as inanely one-dimensional...
...successfully captured the mental difficulties that helped delineate the character. As Chloe, though, she doesn't even get a handle on the zaniness and sensuality needed to make the character plausible. Her voice seems unnecessarily monotone at times, and her actions are nowhere near sultry enough to turn Benjamin's life topsy-turvy--even in the scenes where she discusses her fantasies with...
...patchwork portrayal of a mid-life crisis, and all the allusions to psychological theories serve only to distract attention from the equally unfocused action. Director-writer Marshall Brickman tried too hard, and too obviously, to keep the film constantly hilarious with devices like Freud's commentary and Benjamin's exotic fantasies. But these devices end up annoying the viewer because they don't fit smoothly into the plot...