planktonrules Review of From the Terrace

From the Terrace (1960)

Some excellent performances and a pretty inconsistent plot

[7/10 · 5 November 2006]

The star of this film is the acting. In particular, Myrna Loy did a great job as a lonely alcoholic and Paul Newman and the rest also were in excellent form. For the performances alone, this is a film worth seeing. And in general, it's a very interesting story but there are some inconsistencies that make this film good but definitely not great. One problem is that Newman in the first 40 minutes of the film is so different from the character he later becomes--so much so that it looks like the writers changed their mind about the script but didn't bother re-doing the first portion. While having Newman essentially re-create his mother and father's relationship is brilliant, the steps getting to it just weren't hashed out well--it was like a fairy or witch cast a spell on him since the change just came out of nowhere. Also, late in the film after Newman single-handedly destroyed his marriage and alienated his loving wife from him, the movie then takes a rather sanctimonious course. Newman is now behaving like a crusader for right and basically blames his originally long-suffering wife for half of their marital woes! This wasn't what had happened in the film--it was almost all Newman and ending it that way just didn't make sense. And implying that Newman suddenly and miraculously changed just seemed unreal--after all, he'd just spent years being a distant workaholic and now he was giving it all up?! If the movie had shown him either NEVER change or vow to change but make his second marriage mirror the first, then this would have been a much more realistic and satisfying film. As it is, it's decent but not an essential film by any stretch.