A Delicate Balance

.. a play about fear and loss among the upper middle class. I finally caught up with this filmed version starring Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield as the discontented Agnes and Tobias who wander around their expansive Connecticut house and wonder why they're not happy. Their private little world has been breached by Agnes' sister Claire (Kate Reid) who drinks too much and talks even more. But the sparring sisters are also fun compared to the others about to enter the house. Dear friends Harry and Edna (Joseph Cotton and Betsy Bair) suddenly appear and move into a bedroom, seeming with no intentions of leaving because they have given in to free-floating anxieties.

After them comes bitter daughter Julia (Lee Remick) who has separated from her 4th husband. The once spacious house is now filled with unhappy adults who all want something but seem to have no idea as to what that might be. Marvelous performances by all, although the Blair character seems truly unlikable, especially when she presumes the role of motherhood over Remick. Kate Reid pretty much steals the show as the hard-drinking Claire.

Of course, "A Delicate Balance" can not be spoken of without referring to some way to Albee's other masterpiece, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" I think the Pulitzer that "A Delicate Balance" won was supposed to be shared by "Woolf," which was rejected at the time for being too vulgar.

Not to say that "A Delicate Balance" is not a worthy dramatic work. It's an incredibly intelligent script; Albee makes broad statements about love and aging here that might be missed in a first viewing. Yet "Woolf" shows a much smoother weaving of absurdism into matters than "Balance." I was far more convinced by George and Martha's "son" than I was by Harry and Edna's "terror." As far as transitioning from stage to screen, I thought "Woolf" was also much better, but mostly because of Mike Nichols and Haskell Wexler, the cinematographer.

The cinematography here, I felt, was meant to look as much like a stage play as possible. And at times, I liked it. And the acting is so good in this movie (for the most part) that I was still hooked. But the whole time, I was thinking, "What if Mike Nichols directed this?" Alas, because there is no music either (it would have been nice), we're left only with the acting. And what a fine cast. Katherine Hepburn has a difficult role to pull off with Agnes; she is both the "fulcrum" of this family and, admittedly, part of its defeat. And she does it so well. There is this agony in her eyes towards the latter half of the film that you just can't look away from. And I like her mannerisms, the way she toys with words, the voices she does. Sure, sometimes a few words are lost, but it seemed fitting to the character. Agnes makes speeches (Claire and Tobias have a nice dialogue about this after Agnes's first exit), and I think she makes them for herself as much as she does anybody else. And Hepburn makes it all intriguing. She holds her ground as arguably the finest actress of American cinema.

Paul Scofield ultimately disappointed me. Yes, he is bland and ineffectual, and despite the strength in his eyes, the confidence of his body language, he never quite makes a difference. He pulls all of that off well. And he does have one fantastic moment where Agnes says, "I'm not an old woman, am I?" and, perhaps inspired by Claire and her accordion and drunkenness, grabs her chin and playfully says, "Well, you're my old lady!"--the most life we've seen in him the entire film--and Hepburn just rejects him. The way he pulls back and returns to his shell is painfully uncomfortable. But then, there is what Albee calls in the script an "aria" at the end, in the scene he has with Harry. This is Tobias's moment; the moment I waited for the entire film. I felt that Scofield botched it. He sits through almost all of it. He says only one or two of the lines with any real power, the kind of power Tobias should be storing up the entire movie. And at the end, when he cries--much too late, in my opinion--it is pathetic and almost ignored by anyone else in the room. (As the women do enter halfway through.) Anyway, I was really let down by this, and I think it's the biggest mistake this adaptation made.

Meanwhile, Kate Reid practically steals the film when Hepburn isn't looking. She's absolutely fantastic as Claire. What I really loved was how Reid managed to find the sympathy in Claire. Claire was once played by Elaine Stritch--can you imagine? How terrifying. But while Reid manages to reach those levels of darkness that Stritch probably could, she also turns her twisted past into something that makes her sympathetic of others. She knows pain. And by god, if she doesn't sound EXACTLY like Elizabeth Taylor in "Woolf." It's eerie, but for fans of Albee, incredibly comforting in its familiarity. As if, "This is the way to portray an Albee woman." And she also creates a unique chemistry with each character. I loved the relationship between Claire and Tobias, and the way every "act" of this movie (except for the ending) closed with the two of them. They have a bond that Agnes is wary of. Also, notice the strange way she interacts with Harry. It's rather terrific, and never truly highlighted.

Lee Remick was on and off here, but as one of the other reviewers pointed out, it's not a fully-realized role. Imagine: a woman of thirty-six divorced four times already. Where is the sense of failure, the constant rejection, the bitterness? Julia goes from being rather calm, smoking casually and turning her nose up at her mother, to a level of hysteria that would make Tennessee Williams wipe the sweat from his brow, with no clean transition. A confusing role.

Finally, Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair. Once again, not fully-developed characters. Joseph Cotten played the role as I expected him to, and that's not a bad thing. He's a terrific actor. He doesn't necessarily make any mistakes here. Betsy Blair was on and off for me, and this I felt was her acting. There was a tentativeness in her voice, a resistance to really attacking the role of Edna and making her, honestly, as unwelcome as she was in this house. She is interesting in that she begins to take over for Agnes the longer she stays (there is a shot of Hepburn realizing this, and the look of horror on her face is absolutely brilliant), but I felt that Blair could have gone further with it.

I think "A Delicate Balance" is, as others have noted, a movie for Albee/theatre fans only. It's not cinematic ally engaging, but if you are familiar with the script, you may enjoy seeing an interpretation of it, particularly with Hepburn and Reid.

The film adaptation of 'A Delicate Balance' promises a good deal. Seeing Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield leading immediately attracted me, having loved them in other things. What has been seen of Tony Richardson, a lot more to see though, has been interesting. And the play is wonderful, the story is slight but the characterisation and drama are extremely rich. Again, while the characters are indeed unpleasant they are interesting in their flaws and none of it rings false. Neither do the eerily dysfunctional family dynamics.

So expectations were quite high, prior to watching 'A Delicate Balance' for those reasons. As well as loving the previous two films in the American Film Theatre series 'The Iceman Cometh' and 'The Homecoming'. Sadly, 'A Delicate Balance', while still being worth watching and above average, was a disappointment and was the start of when the series became inconsistent. Most of the following films in the series ranged between above average and good, while one was great and two were below average.

'A Delicate Balance' does have good things. The best thing about it is most of the cast, with Hepburn and Scofield being powerhouses in roles with a lot of meat to them. Especially Hepburn. Kate Reid's performance has gotten more mixed reviews here, count me in as one of those people that liked her here. She struck me as firey and intense in the role most difficult to pull off and near-impossible to nail. Joseph Cotten does understatement beautifully.

Moreover, a good deal of the photography is lovely on the eyes and elegant and the costumes and sets are nice. Edward Albee's dialogue still has wit, honesty and relevance. Parts are moving.

However, 'A Delicate Balance' also came over as very stagebound and can have a pedestrian pace. Despite some nice photography as mentioned, there is an over-reliance on claustrophobic close-ups that betrays the play's stage origins so it felt like a stage production being filmed fairly professionally. Richardson's direction has been more insightful and interesting in other films of his, it did too often come over as too clinical and not enough is done to open up the drama.

Lee Remick struggles badly in a very poorly written role, one of the very few issues that the play has, coming over as neurotic and unsure as to how to play it. Betsy Blair also overdoes it.

In summary, worth the look but could have been a lot better considering what it had going for it. 6/10.

Scenes from the life of an argumentative middle-class family: a strong-willed wife and a resigning husband are confronted with her alcoholic sister, their continuously marrying daughter, and their friend couple who are afraid of being alone.

Completely uncinematic, downbeat and very static photographed play, from a Pulitzer prize-winning Albee material, with all the psychological soul-killings expected from the author. A pretty valuable record of a theatrical performance: brilliant dialogue and acting are the best it can offer - and it does so.

In Connecticut, Agnes and Tobias (Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield) are an upper-class married couple whose relationship has been uneasy for many years, since at least the time their son died; but they've managed to find a certain comfortable pattern of uneasiness. Agnes's sister, Claire (Kate Reid), lives with them and insists that her perpetual drinking is not alcoholism but willfulness. Their daughter, Julia (Lee Remick), poised to have her fourth divorce, has come back home. Unexpectedly, her room has been taken over by Harry and Edna (Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair), best friends of Tobias and Agnes. Seized by a nameless terror that propelled them out of their own house, Harry and Edna have decided to stay.

The slightly elliptical nature of this material is more annoying than fascinating, but there's still plenty of interest and plenty of opportunity for a team of terrific actors to do their thing. Yet another great Katharine Hepburn performance preserved on film is yet another reason for us to be grateful, but Paul Scofield and Kate Reid have left fewer of their performances for posterity; and so it's nice we have this film, which gives each a fully realized character to play.

"A Delicate Balance" is a play by Edward Albee, produced by the American Film Theatre with no alterations and no foolish attempts to open it up. Alfred Hitchcock proved several times that a limited space can be an asset to a movie; and while the film making here is not at his level, Tony Richardson does a nice job at directing our eye and staying out of the play's way.