T.R. Baskin

I finally got a chance to see a (poor) print of this film today after wanting to see it for years. I could appreciate its originality and sophistication for the time that it was made, but I was left wondering just what the film was really trying to say. It worked more as a character study than a film. The theme of the cruel and impersonal big city seemed to be a recurrent one in the 1970's (much like "Midnight Cowboy"), and seemed to be a symbol for the lost individual trying to find meaning in life.

I've never been able to believe Candice Bergen in any role I've ever seen her play, and this film is a good example. She's stiff and virtually emotionless in most of this, except for two scenes where her acting became so exaggerated that it was almost embarrassing; once where she laughs uncontrollably (more like shouts) when she is conversing with Peter Boyle and another at the end where she cries after a telephone conversation with her parents. They both sounded exactly the same, and were frankly kind of startling, leaving me wondering why the director allowed her to go so far and didn't ask for another take where she toned it down a little.

The "plot" never really goes anywhere. T.R. seems vacant, zombie-like and sarcastic, and the flashbacks gave me the impression they were being intentionally inserted to make a point when the film would come to an end. They didn't. The scenes in the film could have been played in real time as they happened and it wouldn't have made any difference at all.

There's some dialogue between Bergen and Caan in which she tells him that he "talks like a typewriter." I felt like this described a lot of the film; people don't talk or act this way, and I'm sure it looked great on paper. I can appreciate that this film portrayed a character and her experiences in a very different way for its time, but it didn't really seem to make a conclusion about anything.

Chicago, early 1970's, looking gloomy and dangerous, and unfriendly. Young T.R. arrives in the Windy City hoping to find fame, fortune, or at least a decent and interesting life,far from her hometown of rural Ohio. Candice Bergen turns in a performance that you just have to love; her character T.R. has such an offbeat, yet witty sense of humor, and she is a real go-getter, a modern, free-thinking 70's girl who wants to make it on her own. The movie has an interesting structure, in that it begins midway through her adventure. By the time she is hooked up with Peter Boyle (another terrific performance) in the hotel room, she has already been in Chicago for a while and has experienced a lot. We learn of her experiences as she relates them to her "blind date," always with a sharp sense of sarcastic humor. The question the viewer has is, who is this mysterious guy Larry who arranged this odd meeting of strangers, and why would a gorgeous young woman like Bergen agree to meet an unknown man in his hotel room? Well we find out through flashbacks, of T.R. getting her office job, and becoming acquainted with the city, moving into a cheap tenement apartment, and finally, meeting a man, (James Caan) who sweeps her off her feet,and exposes just how naive and innocent T.R. really is... "T.R. Baskin" is truly a superb time capsule; it completely encompasses the mores and attitudes of the 1970's. Filled with location shooting around Chicago, always a fascinating city, like New York during that decade. T.R. makes us think about life, about the mistakes we make when we are young, and in the end, she brings a tear to our eyes as we see her inevitably lose the innocent quality that made her move to the big city in the first place. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. It's filled with colorful, funny characters and much insight. Sadly this is a forgotten title, never released for purchase on dvd or even VHS as far as I can tell. The copy I managed to track down is poor, and murky and the picture even jumps for about 10 minutes somewhere in the middle. Strangely this washed out old copy actually adds to the film's already nostalgic feel. I hope "T.R. Baskin" gets rediscovered, as it truly is a lost gem with an amazing cast.

I saw T. R. BASKIN at the cinema in Colorado when I was a college student several times. I recommended it to everyone. I thought it was on a par with FIVE EASY PIECES or THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. I don't think Candace Bergen was ever better and (the now late) Peter Boyle was great as was James Caan. Many years later in New York I had the opportunity to tell Candace Bergen how much I liked that film and she said, "Oh, they hated it. They all hated it." I thought it was very well written, with many very funny and clever lines. There is a heartbreaking misunderstanding in it that makes for fine drama. I recall it had a subtle touching depth to it and I would love to see it again all these years later to see how it holds up.

Having watched director Herbert Ross's "T. R. Baskin" twice now, I still have no idea why the filmmaker was drawn to the material or why Paramount gave it the green light. Written by the otherwise-astute Peter Hyams, our titular heroine is rather the antithesis of TV's Mary Richards: she's not about to turn the world on with her smile. An escapee from a small town in Ohio, T. R. arrives in Chicago and is immediately taken advantage of by her cab driver from the airport (but nothing is built upon this--it's just shrugged off). She finds a boring job and a boring apartment, she goes out on a boring blind date--the only thing missing is a boring cat. Played by Candice Bergen, T. R. Baskin isn't pithy or wise: she's deadpan nearly throughout. I assume Hyams meant her cynicism to be blunt and amusing, but Ross doesn't ask Bergen to deliver anything more than a sketch of the character (we get nothing about her background save for a phone call home to mom). The film's framing device is deadly: an ex-Army man (a young James Caan), who insulted T. R. after a roll in the hay, sets up her with a married man in Chicago on business. This plot device makes absolutely no sense, and Ross skitters over it, perhaps shamefacedly. Fortunately, the married man is played Peter Boyle, and he emerges as the star of the picture. With his pearly-pink skin, shy smile and alert eyes, it's obvious the movie should have centered on Boyle's would-be philanderer rather than on Bergen's squinting/suspicious working girl. T. R. Is disappointed by life; she finds the Windy City an alienating place, she's in danger of being swallowed up by the anonymity of city living, but will she fight her predicament or simply surrender to it? We don't know because Ross and Hyams want to keep T. R. a floating question-mark. Had T. R. been a tough little nut, we might have had something to respond to; instead, she only comes to life with a case of the giggles in bed, and even then we don't really know why she's laughing. ** from ****

I saw this film when it first came out and was deeply moved because I identified with T.R. - I lived her story when I first left home, including making big mistakes about recognizing when I was merely being used by men I thought really liked me, and the awful places you end up living because you make barely a living wage, and the loneliness - all of it. Every thematic scene in this film could be my own life, with only the details changed. I've never seen another film that comes even close to capturing this experience.

Today when I was trying to find this film, I was shocked to discover how badly it was rated by critics at the time. I'm glad to see that people here respect the film and that most rate it very highly.

I'm going off now to see if I can get somewhere. A classic.