Word: marsha
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...second oldest serial (Search for Tomorrow began a week earlier). CBS canceled the soap when a new 4 p.m. time slot led to a ratings collapse. Love, which traced the trials and tribulations of the two Dale sisters and their kin, helped launch such stars as Warren Beatty, Marsha Mason, Anne Jackson, Christopher Reeve (Superman) and Peter Falk...
Neil Simon's screen adaptation of his Broadway success Chapter Two takes this touching phenomenon seriously. Simon's central characters, a newly widowed writer (James Caan) and a newly divorced actress (Marsha Mason), snap zingers at each other during a wary meeting, a breathless courtship and a marriage that almost fails before it gets started, conforming to the theatrical convention Simon has created for himself. But they have the good grace to be self-conscious about their verbal twitchiness. They understand there are more important matters at stake here. As a result, the movie is rather blurred...
...character particularly needs more time to digest the loss of his wife. His guilty anger and depression impose terrible requirements of patience on his new love after she has committed herself to the more cheerful persona he originally showed her. Simon, of course, is writing autobiographically here; Marsha Mason, now Mrs. Simon, is playing at least a version of herself in this film. This speaks well of everyone's bravery; Mason's speech accepting the notion that she is worthy of love and encouraging her new husband to embrace a similar self-acceptance is truly moving...
Even though much of the movie's plot is based on serious events in the author's own life, it still lacks the credibility in its comedy that Simon usually pulls off. For starters, the two main characters, George Schneider and Jennie McClaine (James Caan and Marsha Mason), take more cabs than anybody else in the entire city of New York. They're always hopping into taxis at the beginning of scenes. For a successful writer like George, this is less surprising than for a little known actress. Where does she get the money to lead such a life...
...Marsha Mason provides a foil for Caan in much the same spirit as she did for Dreyfuss--whiny, forceful when need be, a bit overwhelmed--and we accept her much more willingly. She understands her role and little wonder--in real life she's Mrs. Neil Simon. She does have a definite advantage over Caan in that respect...