FREE: VHS JOANNE WOODWARD,JAMES GARNER ,BICKER ON ROAD TRIP,COMEDY-DRAMA

The listing, VHS JOANNE WOODWARD,JAMES GARNER ,BICKER ON ROAD TRIP,COMEDY-DRAMA has ended.

"BREATHING LESSONS"
This Hallmark Hall of Fame TV Movie is an adaptation of the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by AnneTyler about a Baltimore married couple who travel to a friend's funeral. We're in road movie territory with James Garner and Joanne Woodward bickering along the way. The bickering is of the amusing variety because of the skill of both actors, the tone set by director John Erman and music by Broadway composer John Kander. Although Garner has a non-threatening manner, it's funny to see how Woodward as a dithery eccentric infuriates him. Woodward reminded me a little of Shirley Booth in Come Back Little Sheba, but without the dog. Garner says she "believes the people she loves are better than they are" which explains her romantic quest to rejoin her divorced son with his ditzy ex-wife, Kathyrn Erbe, in a performance as strong as Garner and Woodward. Woodward has an hysterical turn when she is called upon to sing Love is a Many Splendid Thing at the funeral, and gets a good line at Garner with "You and reality oughta go steady", which is also a little Blanche DeBois "I don't want realism. I want magic". In smaller roles are Joyce Van Patten as the funeral's widow, and Eileen Heckart who comes off a little better as a diner waitress (though Garner upstages her with his looks of disdain at Woodward's openness with her). Paul Winfield is also in a few scenes where he is the victim of Woodward's road rage
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