To me, the best part of this movie was the expression in Paul Newman's eyes every time he looked at his on screen sweetie pie, real-life wife Joanne Woodward. Every time he looked at her, his eyes lit up like fireflies, even when they weren't supposed to. In WUSA, the seventh of ten films they starred in together, Paul plays a weary radio announcer who cares more about surviving than doing the right thing, and Joanne plays a hooker with a disfigured face. In other words: two lost souls find love.
The movie could have centered on that tagline, but the romance is actually a small part of the plot. It's a very upsetting, depressive film with the popular 1970s theme of "people are mean, life is terrible". If you like movies like that, ie Network, The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, or even The Manchurian Candidate, this one will be right up your alley. I don't happen to like this genre, so I didn't end up liking it. It's a drama that shows the advantage people take whenever they can, even when it harms others. When someone tries to interfere for good, they get punished and pushed back down to their place. I won't spoil any plot points, but I'll just stress once again the heaviness of this movie. Don't watch it for the on (and off) screen couple. And for heaven's sake, don't watch it for Laurence Harvey; whoever told him to grow a beard for this movie needs to get his head examined. Watch it if you're the type of person who'll root for Anthony Perkins, the innocent lackey who decides to stand up for justice. Watch it if you think the world is a rotten place and you want a film to agree with you.
DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, there are a few random canted angles (the camera frames a shot tilted for no reason) that might not be your friend. Just be on the ready, or in other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"
