Cinco Amores

Whether "Five Finger Exercise" is a good or bad movie, it is a very painful film to watch...the type I generally avoid. But it stars some terrific actors...so I watched it.

Why do I sat it's painful? Well, seeing a film where a couple hates each other and you see and hear such venom isn't exactly a fun picture to watch! I also dislike similar stories such as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" or the TV show "Mama's Family"... as it's painful to see people being so ugly towards each other. I just would rather watch something that isn't so ugly and depressing.

The Harrington family is very well off. After all, they spend their summers in a cottage in Carmel*...a very upscale town. But despite money, the family is in crisis. Mr. And Mrs. Harrington (Jack Hawkins and Rosalind Russell) are a very mismatched couple. He likes sports and being a guy...with few pretenses. She likes being pretentious and putting on airs and smothering their son. Naturally, this is not a good fit and there is tension in the house. But they also have grown or mostly grown kids and they, too, become part of this toxic environment. To make things more complicated, a handsome young tutor (Maximillian Schell) is living with them...and he seems to be pulled into the middle of this mess.

Although I disliked the story, it was mostly well made. I thought the Oedipal tension was very interesting with the son. But I also thought that Russell's character was a bit too much and making her awfulness more subtle would have helped the story. As is, she's a caricature. It also seems to make you feel sorry for the husband, though he is a part of the problem as well. Toning down her character would have helped the husband to be more noticably dysfunctional. Overall, a reasonably well made but unpleasant film.

*To give you an idea about the money needed to live there, today a round of golf in Pebble Beach including all fees is about $1000 per person! And, Mr. Harrington loves to play golf!