SUCH GOOD FRIENDS: 70S CHIC

Having grown up in the 70s (and having reached the magical age of 17 then so I could see R rated films) I loved the movies. Fortunately for me this was a glorious time for film. Not only were past masters still making movies but a new, young generation was coming along that was making movies their way with new stories to tell rather than the tried and true themes. New stories involving people in the world of today more inclined to a world of realism rather than boy meets girl over and over.

Many of these movies were taken from the pages of best sellers. The movie SUCH GOOD FRIENDS was one such movie and it combined the old with the new, a current best seller and an old school director in Otto Preminger. Does it succeed? Some think so to the point they can’t figure out why this movie isn’t a cult classic. Others thought it showed Preminger’s decline. The truth is it lies somewhere in the middle, a movie that’s enjoyable enough to watch but not the best the director made nor artistic enough to gather a cult following.

The story revolves around Julie (Dyan Cannon), a young housewife and mother in New York City, with 2 rambunctious children and a self-interested husband named Richard (Laurence Luckinbill), a major magazine editor and children’s author about to have minor surgery to remove a mole. Things don’t go as planned and Richard has an allergic reaction to the blood they gave him. As the movie progresses things go from bad to worse and the transfusion given to cure that problem results in liver damage, then on to another organ and so forth. Through it all Richard remains in a coma while Julie is left to deal with the worry and their friends.

The friends (as some critics have noted) the typical New Yorkers of the day, self-interested as much as Richard was if not more so and constantly talking about themselves and their own problems and lives while Julie stresses out over Richard. His doctor is his best friend Timmy (James Coco) who continues to tell Julie not to worry with each progressive problem. Their friends Cal (Ken Howard) and Miranda (Jennifer O’Neill), a photographer for the magazine and his model/wife try to show their support but that changes.

While the turmoil that is their friends and their woes unwinds Cal meets Julie for lunch one day. As they sit and talk he reveals what many viewers would have assumed by this time. His wife and Richard had been having an affair. While the opening half of the film dealt with Julie trying to figure out her place in the world, in that of her husband, the second half deals with her reflections on how to deal with this information now. Does she stand by her philandering husband who is comatose or does she seek revenge somehow? To make matters worse she found a notebook she can now decipher while looking for insurance papers. It turns out Miranda wasn’t the only one Richard was with.

Most will find themselves hating Richard and hoping he never comes out of the coma. Others will wish he would so Julie could do him damage. And in both of those options the real meat of this movie is ignored, that of the problems faced by this woman whose life revolved around a cheating husband without knowing it and how she will cope with the world around her now.

There isn’t a poor performance in the entire mix here. Each of the characters acts as if they are the only ones that matter and the actors carry off those roles quite well. It would seem an easy thing to do but trust me, the way it’s written (by Elaine May under a pseudonym) makes it flow so well that it seems effortless. While stories behind the scenes say that Cannon and Preminger didn’t get along at all you can’t tell from what’s on the screen.

What makes the film interesting for most will be the picturization of the time period it takes place in. Like so many of the movies hot during the early 70s the views, opinions, sights and sounds all clearly depict this as a movie made in that time. It’s not timeless but rather a time capsule offering glimpses of the city, of the styles of apartments and clothing, hospitals (not a good depiction of them here) and more. Everything from the film stock used to the way the movie is pieced together screams early 70s. I won’t say this is a good thing or a bad thing but it is interesting. For me it brought back memories of other films and the way the world was at the time.

While this movie is not Oscar material or even a great movie for that matter it does offer a solid story, some great acting and a look at a time long forgotten. And while the character of Julie may be at the center of it all each character has their part to play as well. Some will call this melodrama and others dark comedy but in truth it’s hard to categorize. The best bet is to simply watch and enjoy.

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