Oliver's Story (1978) User Reviews

Oliver begins again

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 21 January 2017]

America's favorite romantic couple back in the 70s were definitely Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw from Love Story. I think Oliver's Story was a film that Paramount had to remake because I think America wanted to know how Oliver Barrett carried on without Jenny Cavelleri.

That's where Oliver's Story begins, he's become the successful lawyer that he strived for. But he's empty, Jenny so completed him that everything and everyone else is measured by her. That is true of Candice Bergen, a successful owner of a textile company who O'Neal tries to get something going with.

Watching the film they'll be several different schools of thought as to whether things might have worked out between O'Neal and Bergen. It is clear that O'Neal just won't reconcile himself that life goes on and as long as he's fogging a mirror he's part of life.

One thing I did like in this film is the reconciliation between O'Neal and his father Ray Milland, the only two who repeated their roles from Love Story. Those scenes in the mill where the Barrett family fortune was made are quite well done, best part of Oliver's Story by far.

It's not Love Story by any means, but Oliver's Story is a decent enough film on its own merits and doesn't deserve the trashing it got.

Despite an earnest attempt by director John Korty to make something more substantive than the original Love Story, it doesn't fully work but there's solid effort.

[IonicBreezeMachine · 5/10 · 4 September 2022]

18 months after the death of his wife Jenny to leukemia, Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) has thrown himself into his work leaving his personal life largely neglected as he still hasn't fully recovered from losing Jenny. Oliver maintains close contact with his ex-father-in-law Phil (Ed Binns) and a small social circle who try to encourage Oliver to play the field. It isn't until he meets Marcie Nash (Candice Bergen) in the park that Oliver begins to feel perhaps there could be a chance again for love, but the two's differing outlooks regarding their social and financial status becomes a point of contention.

Love Story despite its low budget became a sleeper hit in 1970 becoming the highest grossing film of that year eclipsing films such as Airport, M*A*S*H, and Patton in box office receipts and even managed to earn a number of Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Paramount had been interested in doing a sequel following the success of Love Story but the nature of follow-up rights was messy behind the scenes with writer Erich Segal having penned both the screenplay and the novelization and while Paramount did own rights on a film sequel and commissioned Edward Hume to write the a draft that ultimately wasn't used, Segal had publishing rights on his novel leading to the publication of Oliver's Story which was eyed by producer Lew Garde's ITC entertainment for possible prior to Paramount executing their right of first refusal and purchasing the rights. The movie also had yet another hang up in that Ryan O'Neal didn't like Segal's screenplay and turned down a $3 million offer to reprise his role as Oliver. Following John Korty's considerable re-write of Segal's screenplay that earned him a co-writing credit this proved to be enough to win O'Neal back. John Korty had previously directed smaller scale films including his Academy Award winning documentary "Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?". Korty was not a fan of the original Love Story and saw the sequel as an opportunity to develop and analyze Oliver Barret as a character rather than the archetype he was in the original film and sought to make the wealthy young people focused upon in the film more real and believable. Korty's ambitions are certainly admirable in trying to take something like Love Story that was primarily based on emotion in place of substance and try to add substance to it and I do prefer Oliver's Story slightly over Love Story, but only slightly.

With Oliver's Story the film starts off from Jenny's funeral which kicks off Oliver's arc through the film. With his lingering grief from the death of his wife, Oliver has thrown himself into his work taking on cases for tenants on New York's Lower East Side and really only maintaining any regular contact with Jenny's father Phil who tries to alleviate Oliver's guilt by telling him it's okay to move on. There's a refreshingly awkward frankness to the opening scenes in the movie with Oliver shown trying the various scenes such as a singles bar with his father-in-law or his college friend and his wife trying to setup Oliver with a potential prospect, and we also see Oliver going to therapy where he discusses his feelings with a psychiatrist who tries to help him get perspective on things. I think O'Neal is good in the role especially since Korty does give him more meat to chew on characterwise as the first movie didn't really have much to the characters and really coasted by more on the chemistry between Ali MacGraw and O'Neal so Korty is giving an earnest attempt at actually diving into and understanding grief at the death of a loved one.

What doesn't work as well is the actual love story with Candice Bergen's Marcie Nash who's real name is Marcie Bonwit and this is where I feel the movie begins to lose it a little. I never really resonated with her character in the film and some of the disagreements they have seemed really confused at parts and forced at others. We also have a very brief moment with Nicola Pagett of ITV's Upstairs Downstairs playing an initial prospect in Joanna who seems to have chemistry with Oliver but almost as soon as she's introduced she's gone from the movie never to be seen again. Apparently Bergen was an 11th hour casting decision as the production team scrambled to find a female lead. Bergen's a good actress but I don't think she was really able to work within this character or material and she feels ill defined as a result. Another unfortunate aspect of the film is John Marley being replaced (due to billing disagreements) by Ed Binns as Jenny's father Phil and that absence is felt as his Academy Award nominated performance was one of the few things I gave credit to the original film for and while Binns is trying he doesn't convey that sense of history you expect with O'Neal's character so it plays awkward especially if you remember the original film. After dealing with behind the scenes rights negotiations and Ryan O'Neal refusing to comeback, you get the sense Paramount just wanted the movie out the door and left Marley as an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice to just put the film before cameras.

Oliver's Story is slightly better than Love Story as Korty replaces the overwrought maudlin tone of the original film with an attempt at being a more substantive character piece and you can see flashes of a good movie trying to get out but held back by Segal's writing style that clashes with the more grounded approach by Korty. I will say the ending is a MASSIVE improvement from the one in the book and there is a sense of optimism from Oliver for the future which I did appreciate, but in the end Oliver's story is Korty attempting to get a purse from a sow's ear and only just barely not quite succeeding.

Effective Late 70's Drama/Romance With Handsome Leads.

[JasonT413 · 6/10 · 14 January 2015]

Very good little film, picked it a VHS copy at nearby thrift store for a dollar or less. I had never seen LOVE STORY so I can't compared it to that, rather I'm reviewing this as a stand alone film. The relationship between Ryan O'Neal and Candice Bergen was realistic and loaded with clever dialogue. They way they meet and court was unique as well. This film was made while Ryan was still at his youthful peak and he is fun to watch. There is even a shower scene where you can see him nude from the backside which is a hoot. All in all, not an unpleasant way to spend an hour and a half or so. Another film to add to the excellent reservoir of 70's cinema.

Oliver's $tory

[grolt · 3/10 · 25 May 2005]

If love really does mean never having to say your sorry, then the producers of Oliver's Story should consider themselves lucky, because otherwise they'd have a lot to apologize for. Banal, melancholic and tepidly shallow, Oliver's Story is of all things a complete antithesis to Hiller's infinitely superior Love Story. Where Love Story was a celebration of life in the midst of death, Oliver's Story is narratively lifeless, so wallowing in death that in retrospect makes the finale of the first film seem like Laugh-In. In Love Story, Arthur Hiller was able to capture the optimism, vitality and spirit of its youth subjects, providing its flower children audience with a moral center to believe in. Here was a couple, Jenny and Oliver, who overcame class, religious and parental boundaries to create a marriage based on love over money or politics or heritage. Love Story was the penultimate baby boomer picture, a movie for youth the world over to celebrate their liberal optimism and flower power innocence.

In Oliver's Story these characters have grown tired, and so has the first film's spirit. The motivated, liberated youth from the first film become the self-centered, pouty aristocrats that populate this sequel. The hippie sensibilities of the first have been replaced with yuppie complacency, as Oliver goes on a journey discovering that hey, plant ownership ain't so bad after all. The "love story" in this film is pointless, since both characters care too much about themselves to ever come close to capturing the shared bonding between Oliver and Jenny in the first film. Marcie fills her life with recreation, be it tennis, fancy dinners or overseas photography. Oliver starts off a lawyer with a social concern, but ends up accepting his position into land-owning bourgeois society all because, you guessed it, Jenny would want him to do so. Please.

The movie is called Oliver's Story, and if it is to be about Oliver's soul searching, it is the most passive and empty searching as I've ever seen. O'Neal, who can be great when he wants to be, is reduced to pouting while looking onto open landscapes. While the film covers a span of two years, the dreary setting remains a constant winter, and the trees are as dead as the emotion in this film. Some will call it smart for eschewing the standard romance plot, as Bergen's character becomes a write-off after an abrupt confrontation two-thirds in, but it is just arrogant writing. Writer Erich Segal (who also penned the first film), seems determined to breakaway from seemingly low brow romance conventions, but in so doing he has created a totally stale and empty film. What is a romance film without any romance? Even the brief sex scene between O'Neal and Bergen is so truncated and undeveloped that it amounts to all the eroticism of a loaf of bread. Stale.

The film veers from being a love story to being an empty film on just how oh-so-tough it is being bourgeois. The first film worked so well because Ali MacGraw brought a spunk to her lower class Jenny, who in turn was able to free Oliver from his upper class conceits. Without Jenny, Oliver is just another pouty aristocrat, and nobody wants to see a movie about the wealthy complaining about how hard off they are. Sorry, but tennis matches, overseas trips and countryside dinners do not strike me as a particularly sympathetic lifestyle, widower or not.

The whole film is an insult to the original, embracing money over love, individual self-pity over altruistic compassion, and pouting over pleasure. It's one big melancholic bore, where we spend ninety minutes waiting for Oliver to come to the conclusion he should have reached at Jenny's funeral, and that is the need to move on. What does he move to? The comfort of his father's wealth. For those two lovers in the first film, who needed only love to make it, such a conclusion is particularly disheartening. Those who wish to preserve their love for the first film and its characters are best to avoid this sellout Love $tory.

Unnecessary sequel

[Wizard-8 · 4 July 2010]

The (belated) sequel to "Love Story", "Oliver's Story" was rejected by audiences at the box office, and it's all but forgotten today, even with it being released on both VHS and DVD. Watching it, it's pretty easy to figure out why. For one thing, it's hard to sympathize with Oliver; while he has lost his wife, he is rich and with a good job, and he just silently mopes around instead of expressing anguish or sadness. Not surprisingly, O'Neal performance is lacklustre. While Candace Bergman actually give a better performance than most of the other movies she made in the '70s, she lacks spark and spirit. What on earth do these two people see in each other? And the end of the movie is very unsatisfying, leaving the characters' plot threads in the air. The only real good thing about the movie is Ray Milland, though he only makes a few brief appearances.

Love Means Never Apologizing For Your Money.

[tex-42 · 2/10 · 14 July 2012]

Oliver's Story is a movie in desperate need of a purpose. Oliver, still grieving for Jenny after her death, refuses to move on with his life, despite nearly two years having passed since she died. He throws himself into his work helping the poor and rebuffs his friends' efforts to set him up with new people.

By chance he meets Marcie Bonwit (Candice Bergen), an heiress to the Bonwit Teller Department Store fortune. They get together, he seems to loosen up and enjoy himself, but Oliver is held back by his guilt over Jenny. Eventually Marcie tires of feeling as if she is competing with a dead woman, and breaks things off. In the background, are Oliver's father's efforts to get him to take over the family business and accept the responsibility that comes with being in the family. Somehow the break up of his relationship with Marcie inspires Oliver to finally move on with his life and accept his place as a WASP.

There are so many problems with this movie. The biggest issue is that Bergen and O'Neal have very little chemistry, and their relationship feels forced and pointless. She is like the anti-Jenny to the point she is telling Oliver to revel in his wealth. The other big issue is the total lack of a storyline. Oliver spends most of the movie moping, gets together with Marcie, mopes some more and then reconciles with his father. In between all this, very little happens. Marcie is a poorly developed character, and we are given no reason as to why she would try to invest so heavily in a relationship with Oliver. Overall, it's never clear what we are supposed to get from this movie, and it suffers heavily from that.

Oliver(4)Tries to get on with his life after his wife's death,then funeral.

[daybreaker95841 · 2/10 · 16 December 2005]

To me, the only redeeming quality this movie has is its opening(first) scene,which, of course, is his deceased wife Jenny's funeral.Now for my criticism.Several more actors and actresses from "Love Story" might have helped this sequel become a gem of a movie. Also,I think that the first film's director should have directed this sequel.Before I saw "Oliver's Story", I read the much better book,"Oliver's Story".This book has an uncountable amount of extremely interesting details,including at least one of Oliver's attempts at finding a new,true romance that I feel should have been included in this sequel.This aforementioned "new love interest"is referred to at least twice in the book,but not in the movie.I'ts this glaringly obvious omission of way too many of the book's details that make "Oliver's Story" so disappointing to me!One of my favorite parts of the book are its final words which Oliver says he would be if his "wife were still alive.This sequel should have had that as its ending! Oh Well!

No need of sequel

[sudesh-kumar8793 · 3/10 · 20 February 2020]

History is created by the LOVE STORY millions of million people watch and feel the love so why the hell sequel that hurt on heart should be remains by sequel they try to heal the actor... That the audience doesnot like sometime heart breaks are good..

Oliver's sob-story

[Tracy_Terry_Moore · 4/10 · 24 January 2009]

'Oliver Barrett' (Ryan O'Neal) is still pining over his late wife 'Jenny' (Ali MacGraw) of 8 years and he's really beginning to become a pain in the butt.

Fortunately, Oliver meets a chick named 'Marcie' (Candace Bergen) in the park who just might be able to get his mind off of things if she can get past his constant references to Jenny, but its not easy and even a trip to Hong Kong can't stop Oliver from driving Marcie up the Chinese wall.

Not as bad as purported to be by critics, this late 'sequel' is OK with a gentler twist on the relationship between Oliver and his father (Ray Milland).

Come on Oliver - - - - - get over it!

[dgrahamwatson · 7/10 · 13 October 2006]

Although this sequel was released 8 years after the original 1970 'tear jerker', I presume that as far as the story goes it's only 2 or 3 years or so along, eight years would be too long. Despite the fact that Ryan O'Neal was pushing 40 his boyish looks and good shape allow him to pull it off as the grieving widower whose just graduated from Harvard law school.

Oliver Barrett not only is guilt ridden about the fact that he is alive and his sweetheart is dead, but following on from the original he resents his privileged up bringing and the family wealth. However, despite regular visits to the Doctor to straighten out his head he finally grows up when he learns that his ever suffering father who he resents is not perhaps the rotter that he thought he was. Junior Barrett learns that his dad kept poring money into the mill despite it losing money much to adulation and respect from the employees. Loyalty and the need to continue the family tradition are more important than liquidating the mill and swindling the workers out of their hard earned retirement savings!

It's not the worst movie in world but it's not that good either. With the original although there was sadness at the end there never the less was a sense of youthful optimism and happiness that probably reflected the free spirited days of the late 60's and early 70's. Olivers story perhaps only epitomized the malaise that gripped the late 1970's as the movie seemed to lack spirit and purpose. Made too long after the original to make any real impact, OK to watch on a dull Sunday afternoon if there is nothing else to do!

And Again

[boblipton · 4/10 · 7 April 2022]

Love may mean never having to say you're sorry, but death means not having to be in the sequel to Love Story. In this one, Ryan O'Neal has to struggle with being a rich, idealistic attorney in an affair with fabulously wealthy Candace Bergen who treats him to a trip to Hong Kong.

Life is not what it should be, however, since rich father Ray Milland wants him to take over the family business and Candace Bergen actually thinks that her job running Bonwit Teller is more important than paying constant attention to O'Neal.

Beautiful, uplifting sequel to Love Story

[kgehebe · 9/10 · 24 January 2021]

I don't know why this movie has such a low rating on IMBD. Oliver's Story is a beautiful, uplifting tale about coping with unimaginable loss. Its not Love Story nor should one expect it to be.

The story begins with Oliver (Ryan O'Neal) at Jenny's funeral, insisting on staying until the casket is lowered into the ground. It then moves ahead 18 months as Jenny's father encourages Oliver to move on with his life. At first glance it seems odd that Oliver's father in law would take him to a singles bar to try and force him to date again. However, it's through Phil we can almost envision Jenny trying to get Oliver to move on with his life.

Later on, Oliver meets a beautiful department store executive (Candice Bergen) at the same place in Central Park where he and Jenny used to go ice skating. He's carrying his skates and is crestfallen when he finds the rink drained so early in the year. At the same moment, Marcie Nash (Bergen) jogs by, giggling at him.. Again, its as if we can feel Jenny making an intervention to push a devastated Oliver into living his life again.

Much has been made by other reviewers about money and social status of the 2 love interests but thats hardly the point. Its the death of Jenny and learning how to cope that ultimately opens Oliver up to accepting who he is and making peace with it. The most touching scene in the movie isn't between Oliver and Marcie at all but when he reconciles with his father (excellently portrayed by Ray Milland).

Strong performances all around, very life affirming. Sorry it was so misunderstood at the time of its release, worth seeing during a pandemic, a miserable political climate and overall gloom and doom in the world.

Run of the mill, but better than its rating indicates

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 10 May 2015]

Of course, "love Story" was a phenomenon...which I haven't managed to see since it first came out. It was a guarantee that "Oliver's Story" would be less...and it is...but I do think it gets a bit of bum rap.

The story is simple -- a young widower is depressed after his wife's death, and he is having trouble getting back into life. Is it special? No. Does it represent things that real people go through? Yes.

I remember really liking O'Neal...before his career collapsed. And of course, his personal life didn't help things any. But, at the time of this movie, he was still rather enjoyable on screen.

And then there is Candice Bergen. I forgot how much I liked her. She's right for this role.

Ray Milland is back as the father, but has little to do. There is a nice scene between O'Neal and Milland toward the end of the film, but it's O'Neal who has the best of it.

I found the ending to be a downer. Not that it was an unhappy ending, but just not the ending I think most viewers expected and wanted.

A fairly good movie; nothing special.

Don't even bother with this one

[Monika-5 · 19 March 2000]

I found Love Story a very touching and endearing film. I have that movie on video and looked forward to renting the sequel, Oliver's Story. A continuation of Oliver's life without his beloved Jenny.

This was an awful movie. Of course, I wasn't expecting it to be as good as the first, especially since Jenny had passed. But I was hoping Oliver could move on and find happiness elsewhere, in love and his professional life. But Ryan O'Neal and Candice Bergen ignite no sparks together and just plain didn't look good together onscreen. The whole film is dark, shallow and depressing. (Warning: The faint of heart should be careful when watching the film's opening scene at Jenny's grave site. Especially if you are up watching it late at night.)

Only Ryan O'Neal and Ray Milland as Oliver's father are back from Love Story, and I was happy to see that both Oliver Barretts had resolved their differences and began to build a genuine father/son relationship. On the other hand, I was EXTREMELY disappointed when it came to Jenny's father Phil. Not only is he played by a different actor, who has a completely different look, Phil's character has changed from a widowed, simple pastry shop owner to a woman hungry bar-hopper who wants Oliver to come to a singles bar with him. (Phil in Love Story would never have done that!)

Chances are, if you loved Love Story, you'll be extremely disappointed in Oliver's Story. The cast tries their best but they cannot overcome the awful script and the flat direction.

Worth seeing

[salnaffakh · 6/10 · 9 November 2020]

I'm a huge fan of love story and I only found out that there is a sequel last week. So I have ordered Oliver's story dvd and watched it. I was so curious at the end of love story to know what happened to Oliver since the departure of Jenny, so I was so excited to watch the sequel. The beginning (funeral part) was amazing, But the rest of the film was not really the best as Oliver seems lost and confused. The best thing was that finally he reconciliate with his father and started to run the family business, I also enjoyed the end as I felt it was an open end which I was so pleased with as I can't imagine oliver being with someone else apart from Jenny. Overall it's a good film not the best, maybe it could of been better if they used old footage of Jenny and Oliver together.

Time flies like an arrow

[eabakkum · 8/10 · 16 January 2017]

Oliver's Story is a film with an entertaining narrative, appealing pictures, and quiet music. Although it is an amusing experience, do not expect action. For it is better to have loafed and lost than not to have loafed at all. However, the story also contains food for thought, and these moments add extra value. For instance, although the story can be enjoyed as a stand-alone film, obviously it is an elaboration on Love Story. It is its sequel. The combination gives more depth to the Oliver character. Oliver's Story analyses the dawning love of a couple, just like Love Story. The Oliver in Love Story marries below his own social class. Jenny transforms into a slovenly housewife, who is married to a couch that burps. She is saved from this fate only by a premature death. On the other hand, the Oliver in the sequel falls in love with a successful career woman, Marcy. Whereas in Love Story his sport engagements with friends are meant to escape from the rut of his marriage, in Oliver's Story they serve to approach his beloved. Sweat is sexy on her. Nevertheless, the latter affair is doomed from the start. Oliver can not accept a partner, who is his equal in status. He wants to come first. When she says: "I need some space", he hears "without you in it". Whereas Oliver in Love Story is traumatized by the relation with his father, in the sequel he is depressed by the untimely death of Jenny. Again his past haunts him. Fruit flies like a banana, but time flies like an arrow. The consequences are similar: occasional emotional outbursts. Even the attempts of his psychiatrist do not improve his mood. Oliver's Story also elaborates on his profession. Whereas in Love Story he is a business lawyer, in the sequel he is dedicated to social lawsuits. He complains that ninety nine percent of the lawyers give him a bad name. Tensions arise because Marcy imports her textiles from Hong Kong, whereas Oliver wants to keep his old and noncompetitive Barrett weaving-mill in the USA. In case that you enjoy symbolism: a Jenny is a spinning machine. Evidently the character of Oliver is somewhat schizophrenic: charming, irritating, conservative, unbalanced, and ill-tempered. His ego is enormous. He may not be an island, but he is a pretty long peninsula. Still, both films are fascinating. They make you ponder, and that is the hallmark of quality.

Average sequel highly underrated!!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 3 December 2019]

I remember watching this picture on early eights, in that time I found it boring, now revisiting my early movies last night I change my mind, Oliver Barrett III (Ryan O'Neal) after his wife's death, fell into a severe depression, he stays eighteen months living in just as workaholic lawyer and avoid of any social life, his father in law tries help, his former friend neither, he goes on psychologist to get answers, their parents realize such sadness, nothing works, one day at the Central Park he meets a beauty Marcy Bonwit (Candice Bergen) and starting a disconnect affair, always stays at rearward, also he has a bit guilty to be rich, the end has an unexpected surprise, Ray Milland was great as the old father willing think about to retires and needs that Oliver takes the factory Mill's direction, a movie about principles, essential values, sharing compromises, when he realize that he found his life back and therefore the hapinees to lives again. extremely underrated!!

Resume:

First watch: 1985 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5

Not as bad as reviews say

[peter07 · 3 December 2003]

This movie wasn't as bad as the reviews said it was, but I got sick of Oliver's character throwing random temper tantrums over nothing. It's good he was seeing a shrink but well, I guess he needed more time. Too bad he let a great woman go.

That said, I like the fact that the ending didn't fall into a cliche like if he and Marcie reunited. He just realized that he needed to keep living and not feel guilty about doing so just for his late wife. I'm glad I watched this film and anyone who liked "Love Story" will at least want to watch this.