Taylor plays a mature college professor who takes in a student boarder, which acts as a catalyst to move her out of her lonely routine. Taylor does as well as she can with the script before her. Joseph Bottoms plays an obnoxious gay student who is demanding and extremely self-centered. The expected reasons for his behavior are never really revealed other than he seemed to not get the attention he wanted as a kid. Yet, Taylor is somehow taken by this person with little redeeming value to a degree that is hard to believe. It is also revealed that Taylor was once, years back, a bit performer in vaudeville and this student exposes her secret to the public. She is pressured to perform in a campus talent show and she agrees only if the student joins her. We are then subjected to a moldy vaudeville act of song, soft shoe and bad jokes that would have cleared the house 50 years earlier. And it goes on and on and on. We have to sit through the whole thing. The audience gives this act a standing ovation, which can only mean that this town is seriously starved for entertainment. The student is now even more taken with himself as if this one talent show means he is the next Olivier. Taylor's character is now suddenly love-struck with this student, which really makes no sense as he has not done anything other than perform with her. This is the problem with the movie. The student character has never demonstrated any likable quality and you can't feel sympathy for him since we don't know much about him. You can't understand why the professor should be so crushed when the student decides to move out as abruptly as he moved in. The viewing audience is all saying good riddance.
Review of Return Engagement
