Customer Rating:  
Summary: The Best and The Brightest Shine in Twilight
Comment: When I first saw Twilight in 1998 I knew I was watching a valuable classic. We need a few more like Twilight these days to add intelligence that recent movies with action and adventure lack. We need less high-tech-special-affects and more intriguing dialogue which includes humor, wit and wisdom that Twilight provides in abundance.
Listing the cast only was enough for me to go see the film : Paul Newman,
Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, James Garner, Stockard Channing, and with a
supporting cast of not-so-well-known actors who add to Twilight's appeal.
Among them (is/was) the late John Spencer, best known as the president's
secretary or chief aid in the TV series West End. Also, Reese Witherspoon
got an opportunity in this film playing the prodigal daughter of
Hackman/Sarandon. There are a few others who play character parts too.
I like the sophisticated decadence of Hollywood which Twilight so cleverly portrays with its sex, money, murder and cover-ups that are unearthed by Paul Newman, playing an aging ex-cop turned private-eye which implicate friends and foes alike.
Here is a movie about old friendships, soon to be lost lives, and lost
illusions about life and love, that, in my opinion, make Twilight a modern classic for some soon-to-be "late" actors we have learned to love so much over the past fifty years.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Things You Don't Think About
Comment: The plot is a standard one. Our private detective, Harry Ross, makes a simple delivery for a friend and discovers a murder. Then he discovers several more. The police suspect him, but let him go. He wades through the confusion, taking the occasional beating. Finally, he solves the mystery. Then re-solves it. We've seen the plot before. But this movie isn't great because of the plot. It's the characters.
Excepting a very young Reese Witherspoon, who bounces through an early scene, the main characters are all...old. Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, and James Garner are seasoned actors who know their craft and themselves through decades of experience. They use this knowledge to bring a world-weary, knowing depth to their characters. Not-so-old Susan Sarandon and Stockard Channing also invest their characters with this depth of years, their beauty undiminished by it. These people have lived complex lives and learned something from them. They know who they are.
They know each other, too. You can hear it in how they talk, the abbreviated references to shared events and sadly remembered friends. You can hear it in the silences. There are silences of understanding, when nothing needs saying. And there are silences of considered restraint, when something is thoughtfully left unsaid. ("You haven't apologized to me," complains Gene Hackman. "You haven't been listening," Paul Newman chides in return.)
My favorite exchanges between Paul Newman and James Garner occur while they seem to be resting from previous scenes' exertions. Their words are sometimes blunt, sometimes carefully incomplete, always casual, yet rich with reference and understated implication. These men understand each other with fewer words than younger men use. They haven't the energy or the need to say more.
See this movie with someone you think you know well. It may give you something to talk about. Or carefully not talk about.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Film noir for the everyman and woman
Comment: Back in Feb '08 I found out about this movie because I was in a Paul Newman phase of movie watching. It turns out that two of my other favorite movie stars James Garner and Gene Hackman were also in it, so I purchased it. I don't know what the reviewers of the day back in 1998 were thinking but I think that they were not thinking right when they dissed this movie. This movie deserves to be watched and is a "fun" movie as well as an intelligent one. Susan Sarandon shines in this movie and Reese Witherspoon is a hottie in her first adult role and Stockard Channing is delightful in a small role. It all has an excellent cast of character actors and actresses and should be viewed by the readers here at Amazon. RIP MR.Newman
Customer Rating:
Summary: An All-Star Cast, a Good Story
Comment: I was in the mood for an old-school style murder/detective flick, and plugged this one in. 60 seconds into the film I get hit with a MAJOR "double" topless scene starring Reese Witherspoon (10 years younger). Gratuitous? Anyway, after re-gathering and re-trenching from that, I did indeed settle down into a Humphrey Bogartesque murder mystery.
Maybe the most significant mark of this film is the very heavy-duty cast . . . Paul Newman (aged like fine wine), Gene Hackman (the BEST), Susan Sarandon (hate her politics but enjoy her work, and again, a gratuitous look at her backside), James Garner (fortunately, no skin shots here), Reese Witherspoon (all of her), Stockard Channing (I don't care for her, personally, but she is a NAME).
A good whodunnit tale. Fading starlets, ex-cop private eyes, slithering opportunists, the always pleasant L.A. vista as seen from Mulholland Drive. Enjoy. Adults only please (nudity, language, shooting/beating violence).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Solid performances by top actors
Comment: This film features fine performances from screen legend Paul Newman, up and comer Reese Witherspoon, and more. This is a better film than the reviews it typically gets from most professional reviewers. Well worth watching, especially if you like the Paul Newman performance in Nobody's Fool.
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