Word: nicholsons
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...just got to wonder how calculating some movie studies are. Take the movie Heartburn, with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, two of the most acclaimed actors today. Mike Nichols, one of the eighties' hottest directors, controlled the process; and the screenplay was taken from a best-selling roman a clef by Nora Ephron, the former wife of big-shot Washington journalist Carl Bernstein. Hmmmm. Yeah, you know the producers were dreaming of a blockbuster and nine Academy awards from the moment they started shooting. With all that build-up, you've got to be disappointed...
Given such a plot, Heartburn would just be another one of a myriad of movies on failed marriage without such stellar actors. But Streep, with minimal help from Nicholson, makes it much more. With her hair dyed an unbecoming mousy brown and her nose more pronounced than her cheekbones, Streep is far from beautiful, but she is wonderful. She barely looks at the camera, focusing on what is real in Rachel's life, her children, her husband, her friends. Every gesture she makes seems unconscious and unplanned. When she feeds her child, spooning food out with one hand and absentmindedly...
...only times that Streep seems to be putting on an Academy Award performance, rather than taking you on a tour through the family album, are when she is with Nicholson. As Mark Forman, Nicholson gives a performance reminiscent of everything he has ever done. A little from Terms of Endearment, a little from Prizzi's Honor, even a bit from The Shining when Mark gets upset...
...basic problem is that you never quite understand why Rachel would marry Mark and stay in love with him. Nicholson has this sideways glance that is supposed to be sexy but makes him look devious. In addition, compared to yuppie Rachel, Nichsolson is old; in fact, he looks about the same age as Rachel's father. The one thing that Nicholson does do well in Heartburn is sing badly and often...
Then comes the Day After. You don't just go to class. You stagger in, using Jack Nicholson's patented "Cuckoo Nest" post-electroshock walk. Your section leader takes on the sinister role of Nurse Ratched as you wink, smile and wallow in your rebellious glamour. Better than thumbing your nose at the school principal, blazing through a two week assignment in one night completely destroys your section leader's sense of authority...