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.
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.