BY LEE PFEIFFER
Director Robert Altman was widely admired for choosing his film projects based on personal passion for the subject matter, regardless of whether the production had any apparent boxoffice appeal. That artistic side of Altman is to the fore with his 1987 screen adaptation of the stage farce "Beyond Therapy", a title that might well have been applied to the people who financed this misguided production. The decision to bring the play to the screen was bizarre to begin with, as it had flopped both off-Broadway and on the Great White Way itself. When a stage-produced turkey dies, the burial is witnessed by only the relatively few people who had the misfortune of attending the performances. (The infamous "Moose Murders" only affected the opening night audience, as it closed the minute the curtain dropped.) With Altman's screen adaptation of "Beyond Therapy", the flaws in the original work became magnified through a theatrical and video release that saw the pain inflicted on an exponentially larger audience, despite the fact that the movie was itself a bomb.
"Beyond Therapy" is set in New York City but was filmed in Paris, where Altman had taken up residence for a time. The film opens in a French restaurant where Bruce (Jeff Goldblum) and Prudence (Julie Hagerty) have a disastrous first date, with Prudence having responded to Bruce's ad in a personals section of a magazine. Turns out he's a psychological basket case who brings Prudence a rose but never gets around to ordering food or drinks. He speaks frankly about her physical attributes and then tells her that he is a bisexual who ls living with his jealous lover Bob (Christopher Guest). Prudence is no prize, either. She's erratic, over-stimulated and, like Bruce, is undergoing psychiatric therapy. Perhaps if the story stuck to this eccentric couple, a reasonably funny plot line might have emerged but an abundance of other oddball characters are introduced. Tom Conti plays Prudence's sex-crazed psychiatrist who prides himself on seducing his patients. Glenda Jackson is another shrink who is having anonymous sexual encounters with him while at the same time is suffering from mental problems herself that result in her taking the couch in the presence of the patients she is supposed to be analyzing. Christopher Guest's Bob is flamboyantly gay and more than a little perturbed by Bruce's dalliance with Prudence, and he's also in a troubled relationship with his Lady MacBeth-like mother, played by Genevieve Page. All of these characters have intertwining relationships that are played out in the style of a French bedroom farce. The problem is that French bedroom farces must be as light as air in terms of pacing, while Altman's film goes down like a three-week old baguette. Eccentric big city urbane types are generally the domain of Woody Allen, whose romantic comedies tend to be very good because the characters and dialogue are believable. Not so here. Altman encourages his cast to chew the scenery at every turn and it can be said that this is one of those rare films in which very talented people come across very badly at every turn.
Robert Altman, like any director, had his share of flops. He was said to disdain "Beyond Therapy" but if he wanted to assign blame, he needed to only look in the mirror, as he co-wrote the screenplay with the play's author Christopher Durang. Happily, the film's was largely ignored, grossing less than $800,000 worldwide. Altman rebounded occasionally and enjoyed two highly acclaimed films before his death in 2006: "The Player" (1992) and "Gosford Park" (2001). His legacy is assured as a great American filmmaker, "Beyond Therapy" not withstanding.
The Blu-ray from Scorpion is perfectly fine with a crisp, nice transfer. The only extras are the original trailer and a gallery of "B" sex comedies also available from the company.
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