Alan Alda's first foray into film making is a somewhat over wrought comedy with a few laughs. It's like a kinder, gentler Woody Allen movie. No wonder it made a lot of money. It certainly doesn't hurt that there is not a bad performance in the entire cast, though I agree with a previous reviewer that a little of Jack Weston goes an extensively long way. I also like Alda's instincts as a director. He does not fall in love with super long scenes, as do many actors turned director, but does a good job of cutting so that the film feels like a movie and not a stage play.
My big problem with "Four Seasons" centers on Alda as screenwriter. Basically, I did not buy the story premise where a perfectly sensible divorce between a clearly mismatched couple (she an introvert, he the opposite) would cause such excessive sturm and drang among their friends. I mean, my wife and I and our friends have known couples whose splits have been far more visceral than the Len Cariyou/Sandy Dennis breakup and it certainly did not summon forth the yelling and declaiming and falling apart that each member of the cast (Rita Moreno excepted) is called upon to engage in. Give it a C plus.
My big problem with "Four Seasons" centers on Alda as screenwriter. Basically, I did not buy the story premise where a perfectly sensible divorce between a clearly mismatched couple (she an introvert, he the opposite) would cause such excessive sturm and drang among their friends. I mean, my wife and I and our friends have known couples whose splits have been far more visceral than the Len Cariyou/Sandy Dennis breakup and it certainly did not summon forth the yelling and declaiming and falling apart that each member of the cast (Rita Moreno excepted) is called upon to engage in. Give it a C plus.