Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

blanche-2 After all that sturm und drang for Ingmar Bergman, Liv Ullmann tackled a comedy, Forty Carats, based on the hit Broadway play. It originally starred Julie Harris (succeeded by June Allyson, Joan Fontaine and Zsa Zsa Gabor), with Gretchen Corbett as her daughter, and Glenda Farrell as her mother. It later became a summer stock vehicle for actresses such as Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers, June Lockhart, and others.Forty year old Norwegian-American divorcée Ann Stanley (Ullmann) is a successful real estate broker. She lives with her mother (Binnie Barnes) and her daughter (Deborah Raffin). Ann's ex-husband is an actor, Billy Boylan (Gene Kelly) and she hasn't had any romance since their breakup.While in Greece, she meets a 22-year-old young man, Peter Latham (Edward Albert) and the two sleep together on the beach one night. Embarrassed, Ann leaves without saying goodbye. When she meets him again in New York, he still wants to be with her. Ann is not able to deal with the age difference, and her mother wants her to take up with a wealthy southerner who is after her, J.D. Rogers.When it was to be directed by William Wyler, many top stars, such as Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, were up for the role. For me, Liv Ullmann, as likable, lovely, and beautiful as she is here, was not quite right for this role. For one thing, I had trouble understanding her English. For another, she is not adept at comedy. They say a great comedian can do drama but not vice versa. Also, there was not much chemistry between Ullmann and Albert. Both he and Deborah Raffin died too young. Albert only a year after his father. He is very good and at the peak of his career here. The stunning Deborah Raffin is a good Trina. This was Binnie Barnes' last film, and she and Raffin played well off one another.Gene Kelly was over the top. I think this could have been directed with a stronger hand.Nowadays, 40-year-old women sometimes do date younger men so it's not such a big deal, and Ullmann looked like 40-year-olds look today, meaning she looked younger than what we used to think of as 40. This is a sweet film about the heart wanting what the heart wants, and that love can sneak up on you when you least expect it under less than ideal conditions.

marcslope Liv Ullman, lovely in a series of chic early-'70s outfits, is not quite right for the cougar part played memorably onstage by Julie Harris (and Lauren Bacall on tour). She never relaxes, she doesn't look like she's having fun, and the chemistry between her and Edward Albert, as the 22- year-old she falls into bed with, is hardly overwhelming. The miscasting doesn't end there, with Gene Kelly rather creepy as the weak but loving ex-husband who sets things right for the mismatched couple; not for the first time, he seems more in love with himself than anyone around him, and it's embarrassing to watch his character try and pass himself off as 40. Some good character actors hang around and do what they can to make the stage machinery work-- Binnie Barnes, Don Porter, Nancy Walker--and there's some picturesque Greek location filming, and a pretty Michel Legrand theme. But the stage-rhythm dialog doesn't resonate, the outcome's never in doubt, and Liv looks like she'd be much happier being miserable in an Ingmar Bergman opus.

drednm Based on a hit Broadway play that won a Tony Award for Julie Harris, 40 CARATS is a comedy about a 40-ish woman who is pursued by a 22-year-old man. Liv Ullmann, looking very pretty, stars as the New York City realtor who meets the young man (Edward Albert) while on vacation in Greece. By coincidence (and a big one) he meets her again when he shows up for a blind date with her daughter (Deborah Raffin). It turns out he's from a wealthy family which interests Ullmann's swinging mother (Binnie Barnes).Into this mix are Ullmann's first husband (Gene Kelly), her secretary (Nancy Walker), a hick from Texas (Billy Green Bush), a customer (Natalie Schafer), and Albert's parents (Don Porter, Rosemary Murphy).The plot revolves around the machinations and misconceptions of who is dating who and is it proper for Ullmann to marry a much younger man.Ullmann is good as the "middle-aged" woman. Albert is sort of creepy. Kelly is annoying as is Green Bush. Walker gets in a few zingers. Raffin is a blank. But in her final film appearance the 70-year-old Binnie Barnes (looking decades younger) steals every scene she's in as a swinging grandmother who's always borrowing Raffin's clothes and can't wait to hit the dance floor. This role was played by Glenda Farrell on Broadway.

Paula Kaye Thought provoking, eye-brow raising and VERY funny in all the right places! Long before Demi Moore walked out hand-in-hand, in Public, with Ashton Kutcher, this film went "public" with the possibility that a younger man, (who was strong, handsome and had both his own business and LOT of money already in his pocket!), could find an older woman, (who wasn't broken down or bitter about life!), attractive, desirable and worth "fighting for"! The romance between Peter Latham and Ann Stanley, (played with sensitivity and subtle humor by both Edward Albert, Jr., and Liv Ullman respectively), begins one dusky night in Greece and culminates after he accidentally finds her again in New York.Ann had originally gone to Greece for a bit of a "final fling" before she felt "compelled by societal convention" to settle into "matron-hood", (that time in life after having been a Wife and Mother, and now, with her marriage over, and her daughter grown; she was no longer "on the market" as it were for any of the "usual" things that most men supposedly wanted out of a woman... So, she'd just "concentrate" on running her own Interior Design business and "forget" about "Love" ever coming into her life again...) However, Peter's feelings were a bit bruised when he woke up the next morning after their romantic tryst, alone and went looking for Ann, thinking that he and she had just begun a wonderful relationship.Realizing that he'd been (essentially), sexually "used" by Ann, he chalked the night up to a "wonderful fling" that he'd just have to "get over".The real mayhem begins (again!), when Ann's daughter comes home one evening and announces that she's got a date with a friend of a friend.... And, yes... The man who shows up to go on the blind date with Ann's daughter is the man that Mom already got to "know"! Peter! Subtext and double entendres play out in a scene that is both hilarious, squirm-worthy and exciting all at the same time when Peter wants to know why Ann behaved "so cowardly" in regards to the way she left him in Greece.Peter wants to know why Ann would be so Puritanically inclined now that she's back in the "real world", and sets out to win her love all over again!Liv Ullman, (formerly directed by the legendary Ingmar Bergman!), is a most unlikely "cougar", and Edward Albert, Jr. a most decidedly un-cub-like "cub" in this priceless gem of a film.Everyone is of legal age, which only begs the question, "Was society ever so truly closed-minded?" The answer, sadly is, they still are! The only real problem with the film, here, is that it's NOT readily available anywhere!