User reviews

Another film I never get tired of re-watching, THE FOUR SEASONS is an entertaining, albeit predictable comedy-drama about three affluent couples who vacation together, whose perfect circle of friendship is forever altered when one couple decides to divorce and the man tries to bring his new girlfriend into the circle. There is a lot of funny stuff that goes on here and a lot of unpleasant stuff as well, especially the way the circle treats the new girlfriend, but most of it rings true and the emotions expressed among these friends about losing the wife who was rejected for a younger woman, are quite real. My only problem with this film is that all the characters talk like Alan Alda. Yes, Alda wrote and directed the film, but he should have given the characters their own personalities, not his. Alda and Carol Burnett make a very believable long-married couple, Jack and Kate as do Jack Weston and Rita Moreno as Danny and Claudia. Len Cariou makes the most of an unpleasant role as Nick, the husband who divorces his wife (Sandy Dennis, in a lovely and heartbreaking performance)and tries to bring his new girlfriend (Bess Armstrong) into the circle. There is slapstick and sentiment and pathos and I have to admit to cheering the first time I saw the scene where Armstrong tells the group off for treating her like an outsider. It's not Chekhov, but it is a charming film with likable characters, realistic situations, beautiful scenery and a lovely musical score. If you hate Alan Alda, beware.

Alan Alda the actor has come up with a few worthwhile projects over the years as a writer and director. This movie, his feature directorial debut, is quite enjoyable.

Three upper-middle class couples are seen during the four vacations they take annually. They enjoy each others' company, but a fissure in the friendships begins to grows when one man tires of life with his wife and introduces his new, younger girlfriend into the group, and things go from there. Alda manages very successfully the balance between comedy and drama, aided by the excellent cast of veterans. All the principals here (the first seven listed in the credits) do fine work.

I was 14 the first time I saw this film in 1981 on HBO. I found it to be a totally engrossing movie that made one actually think about the complexities of life and relationships other than just your typical movie fare of sex and violence. They just don't make movies like this one anymore, and probably never will again (which is sad).

Like Vivaldi's Four Seasons, the cast of characters cover a range of emotions; through anger, grief, and denial of the departure of the spouse of one of the couples who vacation quarterly together and finally acceptance when a new and (younger) addition enters the picture.

The banter between the couples is unusually intelligent, and hysterically funny in some scenes. Jack Weston's character Danny is my favorite. Alda's Jack describes him in one scene as being hypochondriachal, which is the understatement of the year. He seems to feel that he is dying at any given moment of any number of diseases. Death to him is imminent, and his portrayal of this emotion is brilliantly funny because of the sincerity with which he tries to convince the others of the validity of his fears. I loved the scene where he and his wife Claudia have an arguement and she offers up the suggestion once too often that her Italian heritage is the reason for her behavior and Danny cuts loose on her. He gets so into it, that it doesn't seem to matter to the director that he flubbed the line where he's screaming out the window that "I'm sick of your I'm your Italian", when he really meant to say "I'm sick of your I'm Italian". So the scene is left in.

The scene where Jack and Kate laugh their a**e* off on the boat one night while listening to Nick and Ginny having sex is also hysterical.

Really great movie. Highly recommended for people as desperate as I am for some intelligent and thought provoking entertainment.

Three couples--best friends--are seen on four trips together during the course of a year. Writer-director-star Alan Alda shows a surprisingly stylish eye for the beauty of the changing seasons, and as a writer he knows how to shake off the melodramatic doldrums and be funny, but his sense of style and pacing isn't helped by his need to be educational, to teach us all something about ourselves (this movie hints that maybe he's been in therapy too long). The film isn't whiny, but it has shapeless scenes that are overdrawn--and the longer they go, the more rambling they become. One couple separates and the man brings a new woman into the fold, but his ex-wife (the wonderful Sandy Dennis) is much more interesting and sympathetic than who we're left with. Two college-age daughters are introduced (played by Alda's real-life children), but they don't seem to be familiar with anyone at the table. The final act allows Alda's repressed character to finally react and blow off some steam, yet the responses he elicits (particularly from his wife, Carol Burnett) aren't believable--the characters all sound and act too much like each other for there to be nuances in their reactions. Burnett is tough to get a grip on here, and I don't know if it's the writing or just the tack she's taken here as an actress, but her rigid/passive/supporting-but-unhappy wifey doesn't showcase any particular feeling; Bess Armstrong, as the new friend, doesn't get a good strong scene until almost the end, and that's because Alda enjoys poking fun at her youthful idealism (even at the end, Armstrong is stuck with dippy dialogue like, "I'm going to take a run in the snow!"). The picture was a big hit, and it may spark conversations about friendships and our need to be around what is familiar--even if it nags at us--but Alda doesn't allow for solutions. He wants to create a mess, analyze the mess, and then throw up his hands and say "that's the way life is!" But this reality of his is plastic-coated, with TV-ready dialogue, and while he's an amiable filmmaker, he's never a self-satisfied one. **1/2 from ****

When I first saw this film in the 1980s with a bunch of girlfriends, we all practically fell out of our seats with laughter. Alan Alda did a fantastic job of demonstrating mid-life crises and poignancy. There are wonderfully funny scenes with terrific characters. How many of us wonder about our marriages, how would you act if a couple you know and love broke up and he brings home a blonde bimbo/trophy wife? Would you cease the friendship, try to help the former wife, how would you handle such a tricky situation and what impact would it have on your own marriage? Alan Alda addresses it all with classy humor, nailing the reactions perfectly, writing crisp, clean copy and directing beautifully. The film is still fresh today with its humor and pathos.

I recall this film being rather successful upon its original release in 1981 and decided to check it out. Lots of good elements at play here: most of the performances are quite good, Burnett, Moreno, and Weston are all thoroughly enjoyable. The score and scenery are pleasant as well. The issue is the script feels contrived and not as realistic as was intended, and becomes preachy and stilted. Nothing against Alda, but he injects too much of himself into this project to the level that he diminishes what he is trying to create. Despite the several positives, The Four Seasons mostly disappoints.

Another reviewer mentioned how this movie has changed for them since they first saw it - and not in a good way.

For me, "The Four Seasons" has only become more relevant.

I'm watching this on Encore as I write this. When I first saw this back in 1981, I was 16 and getting ready to entire my senior year in HS. I absolutely fell in love with this film but my perspective as a teenager had me seeing these people as my parents generation and wondering if when I reached their age I would have this kind of relationship with my adult friends. I also wondered if such people really existed. I laughed at the situations and the lines but without any real world experience.

Now 30 years later, I have a very different perspective on things. I not only see myself (or aspects of myself) in each of the various characters, I find that the dialogue and relationships as presented in the film ring very true. When you are friends with other people for a long time, you do know each other well enough to be able to criticize, annoy, care about, and cherish one another the way these people do.

I have also run into and had to deal with people that are essentially carbon copies of the people portrayed in the movie. I know Jack and Kate, Danny and Claudia, Nick, Ginny, and especially Anne. These people are real - not just characters written into a screenplay. They live in my town. Their fears, dreams, and neuroses are all familiar.

Alan Alda was able to capture authentic portrayals of people by an outstanding cast. And while all movies are a distillation of sorts of character types, the individuals in this film seem particularly authentic to me.

30 years later, I find this still to be a terrific movie. It is timeless in its message, and the emotions (humor, sympathy, anger) I experience come from a genuine understanding of and kinship with these people and their situations.

It was okay. Alan Alda and Carol Burnett can certainly act. Sandy Dennis and Rita Moreno also inhabited their roles nicely. I am not familiar with Len Cariou and Jack Weston, but there was nothing wrong with their performances. One of Alda's daughters was a bit wooden in her role, but then again, her character was depressed, so maybe that's what the director (Alda) asked for. Nice scenery, nice use of Vivaldi, unobtrusive directing. The film is about the friendship of three middle-age couples who vacation together. Some of the lines and incidents really ring true and some do not. Overall, it did not quite bore me, but I was not exactly rapt. It was okay.

When I first saw this years ago, I really liked it. Now being older than the cast at the time, I find them annoying and obnoxious. I would never want to know, let alone vacation with this group. The cast is first rate, but yikes. Evidently this is a movie by Alana Alda for Alan Alda alone. The title should have been 'Self-Centered Obnoxious middle age man can't get enough Attention,' but I guess that was just too long. Another movie on my list of used to love, but now gone into the growing chasm of older movies never to watch again. It is also annoying that there is a required character length to leave a review, but hey.

I was watching the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to Rita Moreno, which included some short moments of her film work. I kept wondering if they'd show anything of The Four Seasons, which, while not something she's hugely remembered for, offered her a meaty role late in her film career, and is one of the first times I had ever seen her, as I hadn't ever watched West Side Story or most of her TV work. There was no mention, and indeed, I rarely hear of the film at all these days. I did see a sneering review of the film on a blog that, among other things, seemed astonished that the movie had ever been made as it was so poor, and seemed to believe that Bess Armstrong only appears in the first third. It was that review which compelled me to write this one.

The Four Seasons is one of those films I never watch too often, as the characters and dialogue start to get on your nerves with how self- analytical and overly quippy they are, but this actually shows how ahead of its time the film was - if you add in some dramatic walking, or supernatural special effects, you have your average Aaron Sorkin or Joss Whedon script.

What works for the film is the chemistry of the cast. You genuinely believe the characters have been close for a long time, and you can understand why the women resent Ginny, Anne's "replacement" in the group, and in Nick's life. Yet because the movie is also honest about the flaws of the characters, you're also invited to see the women's resentment, and the patronizing attitude of the men, as unfair.

As time passes things start to feel a little too much (too much hectoring from Carol Burnett's Kate, a bit too much clowning from Jack Weston's Danny, a few too many measuring contests between Nick and Alan Alda's Jack), but it still ends on a satisfactory note, an ode to friendship along with a reminder of just how casually discarded friendship can be.

Even though I haven't seen this in years, many parts still stick in my mind - the classical music for the soundtrack, the gorgeous cinematography (the overhead shots of the sailboat in the summer sequence in particular), the cramped car ride and sharp turns, Nick's depressed daughter talking about how the women at her college urinate off the balconies, Carol Burnett's speech at the end about friendship and losing touch.

My favorite part of the film is Sandy Dennis' brief turn as Anne, Nick's first wife, the one discarded from his life, and then from people she saw as her friends. It's a touching performance, one that nicks at you long after she leaves the screen. Her final scene, running into her old friends, reminding them of their abandonment of her, and then moving on, is in many ways the natural conclusion of the film, and ends with such a classic line - "Maybe I'll get a goddam boa constrictor." You can't argue with that.

I'm always surprised to read negative comments on this film. I guess I have a strange sense of humor because there are parts of this movie--quite a few parts as a matter of fact--that I find simply hysterical. There are also parts that are maddening--I do not care for Sandy Dennis' (ex)-husband at all. When you have seen the movie as many times as I have, you also begin to find flaws in the dialogue & situations--things that don't make sense to you. But never enough to make me dislike this film which has so many more truths about human nature & couples. Every one of the cast is good in their roles. Carol Burnett & Alan Alda are perfect together & have one scene in the "Fall" section that cracks me up every time. Rita Moreno was truly funny. When her husband, played by Jack Weston, leans out the window on the hotel & shouts, "She's Italian!" "There, now everyone in the state of CT knows that you're Italian." Though I've often thought that she had every right to say what led up to this scene, it is still very very funny.

I just wish it would come out on DVD. I would definitely get it.

With the two leads being such comedic powerhouses I was expecting this movie to be a lot funnier. There were a few decent chuckles but on the whole not overtly comedic. The cast had chemistry especially amongst the couples, they certainly gave off the feel of being married for a long time. The premise was interesting and I definitely felt like I wanted to keep watching. Until, wham, it just ended. I don't know what I was expecting really but it certainly wasn't a sudden cut to credits. Though a decent enough movie I don't need feel the need to ever watch again and I'm not sure I would recommend.

I love this movie, every single actor did a stupendous job in it. This movie deserved at least 2 Oscars. One for Alan Alda's directing and one for Rita Moreno. I thought she did fantastic. There was great chemistry between Alan and Carol, and Jack Weston and Rita Moreno. Not much for Len Cariou and Bess Armstrong in my opinion but they still did a great job performing. I love the story, when I was watching it I kept saying to my self "how is this movie gonna end?", i had not the slightest picture in my mind of the ending. It caught me by surprise, I never knew it was going to end just like that, but hey it worked. It had a very happy and simple ending. I'm 16 and say that this is my favorite movie. I never get sick of watching it. I don't have much more to say then to just recommend it to everyone. It's a fun movie to watch. The script is hilarious and you'll enjoy it very much.

ALAN ALDA has sharpened the humor and tense situations that occur when three middle-aged couples decide to take vacations together through the four seasons, with some unexpected results. Most of the mishaps are on the funny side and there's a lot of wisecracking between the couples, some of which sounds an awful lot like TV situation stuff. CAROL BURNETT scores nicely as Alda's wife, adept as he is with one-liners.

But it's all done in a light-hearted way with the seasons bridged nicely by some transitional Vivaldi music. The story is how one couple (LEN CARIOU and SANDY DENNIS) is marked for divorce, which sets up the theme of antagonism toward the new woman entering the friendship circle and being mistreated out of spite. The new woman is played well by BESS ARMSTRONG and stand-outs among the other couples are RITA MORENO and JACK WESTON, as a bickering couple in the mold of Fred and Ethel Mertz.

The seasons are beautifully photographed and the tightly knit story structure makes the whole thing a pleasure to watch. Written and directed by Alan Alda, it's certainly a feather in his cap.

"The Four Seasons" is a wonderful character study about friendship, marriage,and being middle aged. Shamefully, they don't make movies like this anymore. I was able to identify completely with the characters, their marriages, and their friendships. It made me see that my husband and I aren't the only married couple in the world who can disagree but still have a deep love and appreciation for each other. I would not recommend this movie for anyone under the age of 30. One has a more developed appreciation for this screenplay if you are older and more experienced at life. However, I would highly recommend this film to anyone over 30. It is delightful!

Stories like this one can only exist in fiction. The reason is that in real life, after the summer vacation, the three couples would have had nothing to do with each other ever again. In this movie they still get together two more times. But since this is a movie, I can ignore that. Instead I thought the movie was pretty funny. Alan Alda seemed to be spoofing the fact that at the time he was considered to be the stereotypical sensitive male by having everyone getting fed up with his psycho-analyzing. Though in three of the vignettes, water plays a factor, I can't figure out what it supposed to mean. With the exception of Bess Armstrong's meltdown (and then she goes running all night?), the verbal explosions were realistic and not the least embarrassing to watch. And how about the Alda sisters getting to insult each other? In summary, a funny film about the trials of long-term marriages and friendships.

The Four Seasons alternately tries too hard to be a Woody Allen film and too hard to be an animated and witty stage play. In Alan Alda's trite effort to be offhand and witty with his dialogue, character-driven story, and surprisingly occasional attempts at humor, he conversely succeeds in creating a film that is so contrived that the dialogue is laughably scripted and produced through lots of pacing around trying to spice up each line, and each humorous moment is more irksomely awkward than funny.

There is one funny moment, and that's when Jack Weston finally gets fed up with Rita Moreno's constant proclamations of being Italian, even though it's overacted and overdirected.

The acting is fine, because the cast is exceptional. It's a joy to see the hilarious Carol Burnett in a movie. However, their performances applied to such an unnatural and manufactured script just makes it even gawkier and tonally tainted.

Alan Alda, though I've always enjoyed him as an actor, has disappointed me greatly by indulging so heavily in trying make something like something else the way someone else has already done it.

I've seen this movie every year at least once or twice since 1981. It's one of those great films to cuddle up with your dog, some popcorn and a blanket and enjoy. It's taken me from the age of 21 to 46. Not many movies are sweet and funny for 25 years.

The great part is that it not only tells the story of the "four seasons" of the couples' relationships, it also tells the story of the "four seasons" of life as typified by the daughters in college, to the older dentist and his wife.

It's funny, warm, sarcastic, sweet and romantic. You can't ask for much more from a movie. And all that without relying on women with implants, explosions or gratuitous sex. And minimal amount of bad language. So minimal, my Mother even laughs at it.

Alan Alda's first foray into film making is a somewhat over wrought comedy with a few laughs. It's like a kinder, gentler Woody Allen movie. No wonder it made a lot of money. It certainly doesn't hurt that there is not a bad performance in the entire cast, though I agree with a previous reviewer that a little of Jack Weston goes an extensively long way. I also like Alda's instincts as a director. He does not fall in love with super long scenes, as do many actors turned director, but does a good job of cutting so that the film feels like a movie and not a stage play.

My big problem with "Four Seasons" centers on Alda as screenwriter. Basically, I did not buy the story premise where a perfectly sensible divorce between a clearly mismatched couple (she an introvert, he the opposite) would cause such excessive sturm and drang among their friends. I mean, my wife and I and our friends have known couples whose splits have been far more visceral than the Len Cariyou/Sandy Dennis breakup and it certainly did not summon forth the yelling and declaiming and falling apart that each member of the cast (Rita Moreno excepted) is called upon to engage in. Give it a C plus.