Search - A Change of Seasons on DVD

Winter blahs

Kona | Emerald City | 01/25/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"40ish college professor Adam Evans (Anthony Hopkins) is having a fling with his 20-year old student, Lindsey (Bo Derek). When his wife (Shirley MacLaine) finds out, she doesn't get mad, she gets even, by starting an affair with a carpenter half her age. Rather than being shocked at this, Adam suggests the two May-September couples spend a ski vacation together, which seems to work out just dandy until Adam's daughter and her lover show up unexpectedly.



With this cast, I expected so much better, but the ridiculous script spoils everything. It tries way too hard to be hip and with-it and ever-so-nonchalant about the extra-marital affairs, with non-stop banter that consists entirely of sarcastic one-liners. There are no pauses, just rapid-fire zingers fired off by poker-faced actors who never become real characters. Even with Bo Derek's topless romp in a hot tub, there is nothing even remotely sexy or romantic here, and the word "love" is never mentioned. Hopkins' wonderful voice and subtle facial expressions are wasted, as there are no close-ups of him (or anyone else) and no time to search their faces for anything resembling jealousy, pain, rage, or even pleasure (emotions that are all lacking in the script). I did like MacLaine's understated performance and Bo is breathtakingly beautiful (this movie was made just as "10" came out), but it all comes to nothing. And the theme song that runs throughout the film, "Where Do I Catch the Bus for Tomorrow?" is so hopelessly corny and dated that it's just laughable.



This movie is a curious and disappointing footnote in the careers of Hopkins and MacLaine.



Kona"

GREAT FUN

Henning Sebastian Jahre | Oslo, Norway | 03/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"... This could easily have been a tearjerker(it`s a depressing theme - "a middleaged husband replaces wife with a 20-year-old"), but the story goes comic and Mary Beth Hurt is hilarious as Shirl and Tony`s daughter. This is the only film(with 10)- of the mainstream character - that Bo Derek did in her early career(although as young teenagers - we loved her in the soft-porn Bolero and Ghosts can`t do it hehe.)



It`s good to see how young Anthony Hopkins once was and the film is filled with great acting talent...



The bathtub scene... aaaaaa how I dreamt I could be Tony

Hopkins with Bo... I did even dream that... Since Bo Derek rocketed to fame in 1979-80 we haven`t had the pleasure of a runner-up... It`s a shame she never was given a James Bond-role - but she`s still gorgeous... so who knows? Maybe they`ll come to their senses and cast her one day as a Bond-dame?"