#1 Cheap Barefoot in the Park Reviews
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"Barefoot in the Park" is one of the best and most successful examples of the filmed Broadway romantic comedy. It features Robert Redford on the cusp of stardom as he repeats his Broadway role as Paul Bratter, and Jane Fonda as Corie Bratter fully realizing her potential as a fine light comedienne. For the whole premise of these totally opposite newlyweds beginning life together to click there has to be a vibrant magnetism between Paul and Corie. This Fonda and Redford have in spades, they could rival great film teams, Tracy and Hepburn, Wayne and O'Hara and Loy and Powell they way they generate sparks.
The plot is slight; Paul and Corie Bratter, after a rapturous five-day honeymoon at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan begin married life in a tiny flat on the fifth floor of an old Greenwich Village brownstone. Corie is an exuberant free spirit, eager to experience all life has to offer; Paul on the other hand is more reserved, practical and cautious as a young lawyer just beginning his career. While Corie views their cramped, antiquated apartment as a little piece of heaven, Paul sees the flaws; the five long flights plus the front stoop, the hole in the skylight, no bathtub, the leaky closet in their bedroom that is so small and narrow it can only fit an oversized single bed, not to mention their offbeat neighbors. One of the most notorious is Victor Velasco (Charles Boyer) an older, chipper roué who lives above them in the attic. Corie and he turn out to be kindred spirits, and she gets the wild notion to set up her gentle, sedate widowed mother Mrs. Banks (Mildred Natwick) on a blind date with him. At the end of a very bizarre evening, which includes a ride on the Staten Island Ferry to an Albanian restaurant, both Paul and Mrs. Banks, numb and weary are more than ready to call it an night. However, Victor insists on seeing Mrs. Banks, to her dismay, home to New Jersey. After they leave, Paul disgusted by the whole long interminable business takes Corie to task for what he feels is a cavalier attitude towards her mother's discomfort. Corie annoyed, responds to this by accusing Paul of being a watcher not a doer in the game of life. This leads to a beaut of a rip-roaring fight that climaxes when an agitated Corie tells Paul she wants a divorce!
Neil Simon based the play on his own newlywed life with his first wife Joan in a five-floor Greenwich Village walk up, and it works because it is so true to life, and the adjustments people have to make in a marriage. It was his first smash hit and ran for 1530 performances on Broadway. He skillfully adapted and opened up the play in the screenplay showing the Bratters in a horse drawn hansom cab blissfully riding to the Plaza just after their marriage, their honeymoon, the disastrous dinner out, and Paul, happily drunk, walking barefoot in Washington Square Park to prove to Corie he's not a stuffed shirt. The one-liners and zingers abound, but the humor is affectionate not malicious, toward one and all, and always faithful to the character and the situation.
In the first seven years of the 1960's Jane Fonda was one of the first choices to play the ingénue in cinema adaptations of Broadway plays, and she won this role over such potential candidates as Elizabeth Ashley the original Broadway Corie, Marlo Thomas who played it in London, and Natalie Wood. This was her 5th time doing a Broadway transfer, and by far her best; she's a charmer, delectably pretty with her mane of russet hair, and her slender, coltish figure that looks sensational by the way when she strips down to bra and slim trousers to tempt her absorbed husband by performing an "original Cambodian fertility dance", ditto when she does an alluring little wriggle as she slips into a dress! You had to love her, despite her little quirks, particularly if you were a hormone ridden adolescent boy the way my friends and I all were the first time we saw it. She also has a sure touch with the witty Simon dialogue making every word count, she's smashing, to use a Swingin' Sixties term!
This was Redford's sixth film and it was lucky for him, the first true hit after a string of flops, and the one that would ignite his career in films. His role is less showy than Fonda's, but he more than holds his own with her. I very much identified with his character, the slightly stuffy, restrained introvert. Still, Paul has a quiet strength, and he has plenty of red corpuscles that get the juices flowing for his seductive young bride. As mentioned earlier, there is palpable electricity in these two opposites attracting. Redford gets his chance to show his talent for slapstick comedy in the last part of the film when he tries to shuck off his inhibitions along with his socks and shoes with the assistance of a bottle of Scotch!
Mildred Natwick was another of the original Broadway cast, and she has a lovely gracious dignity as Corie's mother. She's endearing and maintains her aplomb throughout all the crazy misadventures to which Corie and Velasco subject Paul and she. Like Fonda and Redford, she gets a chance to comedically twinkle, and does it so well that she was rewarded justly with a nomination for Best Supporting Actress of 1967.
As Victor Velasco, Charles Boyer had the opportunity to affectionately spoof his continental lover image, which he does with relish. I can't forget the final original cast member Herb Edelman as Harry Pepper, the hapless telephone repairman, who proves the old bromide true, "there are no small parts, only small actors."
Quick words of praise to director Gene Saks, in this his initial outing; he had an affinity for the works of Neil Simon in both stage and screen. Also, Neal Hefti's bright musical score, with its jazz influences, is a definite asset.
Bad news, no extras except for the original trailer, a commentary with both Fonda and Redford would have been an additional bonus. Still, the movie is strong enough to stand on it's own, and in it's charming innocence and sweetness will always appeal to the young at heart.
Barefoot in the Park Overview
No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: G
Release Date: 19-AUG-2003
Media Type: DVD
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