The movie moves through its plot in subtle ways- no big explosions or car chases, not even any prolonged suspense- you know exactly what is going to happen as it happens, yet I found myself glued to this movie.
The atmosphere was really gritty and things... just happen. Almost like being a cab rolling through unfamiliar territory with a cabbie who is speaking about unpleasent things, the movie takes you on and on but you just can't get off.
Ernest plays a charactor that is rare in a sincere form- an American with backbone combined with wisdom willing to take action.
Unfortunately, his daughter is (forboding of what is coming down the pipeline?) jelly spined and totally with out active morals. She is content to sit back and judge everyone, breakdown emotionally, and then ignore the situation completely by running off with yet another man/support system. She couldn't be blamed, that is until her father sought to teach her an important life lesson, and... she still didn't get it.
Yes, Ernest's charactor goes too far and his daughter practices inconclusive thinking. So the charactors are way too extreme- it turns into a situation that just wouldn't happen with real people. This can be explained that the movie was made in the seventies, when a lot of movies tried to "preach at us" (as opposed to today's movies which now "show us a lesson"). They seem to try to make Ernest's charactor into some kind of bizarre villian, when to me he comes off as an okay guy living in a bizarre world thrown into a situation he never made in the first place.
Everyone says the acting is poor- I don't think so, maybe just a little over played, but I think it is fine for this genre.
I give this movie a 10 because I have watched 15 movies this week that have come out recently and this one is better than all of them, and:
It's watchable.
You want to see how everything comes out.
No where in the movie does someone say "your other left".
It doesn't try to explain much, just lays it out there.
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