The Arrangement

Some pretty big names, right at, near, or just past their peaks... kazan, douglas, dunaway, kerr, cronyn. Ed anderson is an ad man. (the irony of the "clean" cigarette campaign.) he has a midlife crisis. And of course, we flash back to what brought him to this point. Everyone wants to know what really caused it... the doctors, the therapists, coworkers, his wife. At the center of all this is gwen, the office "assistant", who doesn't have any clear duties. And now eddie wants to take care of his father, who has dementia. It's a psychological-thinker film. Izzokay. Moves pretty slowly. And gets pretty heavy. Lots of yelling. It's all well done, but i can understand why people thought it was such a downer. And so long. Keep an eye out for harold gould.. he was "miles" on golden girls. Written and directed by elia kazan. According to the trivia section, this kind of became his swan song.

Not classic Kazan, for sure, but not a total failure either. Was lucky enough to see the film in Paris a few years ago on the big screen. Was struck by Kazan's attempt to break free from the well made play structure he'd so successfully mined in the past. The linear story, though, won out, making the film uneven and stylistically self conscience. But even so, what a marvelous failure. Kirk Douglas, in Kazan's opinion may not have filled Brando's shoes, but, my god, he tried. Dramatically speaking, the film is exploring a state of mind; the character played my Douglas remains, for the most part, in a very static position throughout. Douglas never allows the stain of self pity to disfigure his action. Sitting still, thinking, we see in Douglas a man pulsating with anger, remorse, and the need to act. It's a valiant and satisfying performance even though, like the film itself, we're more aware of what it's reaching for than what it actually holds. The performance, though, that really struck me as being brave and bold is the one given by Deborah Kerr. She's the wife, and she has a lengthy scene late in the film where she and Douglas stray into the intimate area of their married life. Sexually frank and mature, the scene alone is worth the entire film. These two characters discuss intimacy, and then act on it, in a way I've never seen in a film. Kerr was one of the most adventurous actresses of her day; a truly great talent. She gives Kazan the raw, unguarded kind of performance one usually associates with Liv Ullman in her Bergman films.

Elia Kazan's 1969 midlife-crisis epic is an x-ray of American manhood gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Kirk Douglas, icon of tortured machismo, plays Eddie Anderson, son of a tyrannical Greek merchant (Richard Boone) turned Madison Avenue sell-out. He sleeps in childlike separate beds with his wife (Deborah Kerr), who looks and acts more like his mother. He's obsessed with the one woman (Faye Dunaway) who looks at his barbered, Lavoris'd self and sees the Man He Could've Been. The sixties satire of Organization Man is stock, the bombast beats thick and hard, and, as per usual, Kazan can't resist the Big Moments that are thoroughbred Hollywood hokum. But it's impossible to deny that this is as anguishedly personal as any of Kazan's movies--and the machete hacking through the brush that cleared the way for Cassavetes, Scorsese and Ferrara. With its mod, PETULIA-style sets, balletic editing and penchant for stylized tricks, it's also the most goofily cinematic of Kazan's pictures--a Sam Fuller whirligig turned into a slick, upscale thirty-second spot.

A sort of precursor to American Beauty and other modern fillms about dissatisfaction, Kazan's The Arrangment is an interesting attempt to characterize a man's deconstruction. Kirk Douglas plays Eddie, an advertising executive coming to terms with his job, his family, and his life's direction. Kazan experiments with montage, split narrative, and time span as he tells the story of a man looking for something new in life. The result is a compelling and relevant story about modern happiness that is broken apart by bizarre construction and confusing shot arrangement. Kazan has some interesting ideas here, but not all of them work. His split-consciousness portrayal of Eddie is sometimes confusing and distracting, as is the switch between past and present. Douglas is good as the lead; I don't see why Kazan would have chosen Brando in retrospect as I don't think it would have made much of a difference. Overall, a film worth seeing if you're a Kazan-freak, but otherwise stick with Streetcar, Eden, or Waterfront..

Eddie Anderson (Kirk Douglas) is a successful ad-man who seems to have everything. He has his big home, his housekeeper, his well manicured garden, and his beautiful family. His latest ad is selling cigarettes. For some reason, he deliberately crashes into a truck and nearly dies. His marriage to Florence (Deborah Kerr) is passionless and he's having a workplace affair with Gwen (Faye Dunaway). His midlife crisis has turned into full-blown depression and psychological breakdown.

I like the start but I don't like the unnecessary flashbacks. This is written and directed by Hollywood legend Elia Kazan adapted from his book. Somebody should have gotten in there to give him a second opinion. I like the character study in its central premise but there is a jumbled mess all around it. The acting is overwrought. It's way too melodramatic in a bad way. The cast is top notch. I'm sure that Kazan has a stuffed rolodex. This would be better as a simpler story telling and character study. The opening is great and it actually explained his life without explaining anything. One already gets a sense of him. The movie only really needs Faye Dunaway to be introduced and their love affair. This is a jumbled mess.

The second half has fewer flashbacks and that helps. It's less of a mess but I still don't like it. Part of that is my dislike of Eddie. It would be more compelling if it's not about choosing between Gwen and Florence. I would like something deeper. It becomes a melodrama. It's a scenes from a marriage and I don't care about this marriage. The father suggests something different. The movie goes on for too long. This is a long, rambling grind.