Grace Quigley

Seven stars. And the only reason it's that high is that I'm such a fan of Katharine Hepburn's. I've been in the "I'll watch her in anything" camp since I first saw Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in the late 1960s. Her part is nuts, but she carries it anyway, because she was so good at showing emotional complexity. Her interactions with Nick Nolte are the essence of the film. And Nolte does a good job of keeping up with her. Nolte has never been a great actor, although he's become really solid in the last twenty years or so. Back in the early 80s, he was sort of a stiff, and was typecast into dumb hunk sorts of roles. Here he shows some subtlety, playing a sort of parody of Jack Cates. He's a hit-man who's in therapy, after all.

Past those two, I should also give nods to William Duell, Walter Abel, and Elizabeth Wilson for their work as some of Grace's first "customers". This was Abel's last role in a career that went back 66 years to 1918. Seeing him gave me one of those classic, "Who is THAT guy?" moments.

Hepburn was great at playing absolutely indomitable characters. Here her Grace hijacks Seymour's (Nolte) life for absolutely absurd reasons. But they both play it so straight that I was willing to buy into the crazy scheme. The problem is that the director kept pushing the concept until it jumped the shark with the car-chase bit at the end. It also seemed to fall into dream-scape surreality at that point. The point-to-point connection between scenes started to feel like something from a Terrence Malick film. The resolution was a funny little comic nugget that resolves Seymour's story, but doesn't really address Grace's. This is an amusing film, with a solid performance from a legend to lead the bill. If you are a fan of Hepburn's, or of Nolte's, you should watch this. Otherwise, not so much. 9 December 2024.

The coming together of such disparate talents as Katherine Hepburn, director Anthony Harvey and the dreaded team of Cannon supremos Golan & Globus yields certainly the most idiosyncratic treatment of assisted suicide since Edward G. Robinson went to meet his maker in 'Soylent Green' in this project long nurtured by Miss Hepburn which heats up the old chestnut about a citizen hiring a professional hitman to provide his services.

Miss Hepburn and Nick Nolte certainly make strange bedfellows as the client and her employee with quirky contributions from Walter Abel, Kip Le Fever, William Duell and Elizabeth Wilson.

Katharine Hepburn in a Cannon production? Yes, and though the color process on the photography is typically brackish and the technical aspects of "Grace Quigley" seem slapdash, this turns out to be a quirky, exceptionally funny piece about a hit-man's friendship with an elderly woman in New York. Reportedly, Hepburn and Nick Nolte clashed during filming, but you'd never suspect that from the finished returns (they have an easy rapport). The crux of the plot (that aged folks would rather die mercifully at the hands of a hired killer then live in loneliness or pain) was controversial in 1984--and still smacks of bad taste--yet director Anthony Harvey keeps the whole thing bubbling like the most genial of comedies. As for Kate, she's feisty as usual, but also delightfully daffy and loose; she's a team player. **1/2 from ****

Grace Quigley (Katherine Hepburn), an elderly woman, witnesses a hit man, Seymour Flint (Nick Nolte), in action. She finds that he has dropped his wallet and learns his identity. She then blackmails him into killing her, since she is elderly and has no reason to live but lacks the courage to take her own life. However he quickly develops a fondness for her, as a surrogate mother and so can not kill her. Instead they start assisting in the suicides of friends of Grace who no longer wish to live. The film is black comedy at its best and is one of my favourite films. The characters are likable and, wierdly, we end up rooting for them to die. Nolte's role as a sentimental hit man and his relationship with Grace are particularly amusing. This film is not for those who have a strong repugnant feeling against suicide but if you enjoy the bizarre, then you may very well like this film. If you do, then you could also like Harold and Maude.

This film has an offbeat premise, and many offbeat characters. The last theatrical release of Kate's career is neither a fitting nor typical valedictory -- and in that way, perhaps it is a fitting testimonial to Hepburn's career --- unconventional and poignant while always entertaining. Although the laughs are uneven and the subject matter may offend some, I found it entertaining and interesting.