Invested 2 hours in this movie which I taped off of amc channel. The tape switched off before the movie was over...I saw the baby's baptism, Sam's heart attack, the family awaiting Sam & families arrival at the house, they go out to the car at curbside.......???? Is there much more, should I rent it for the ending? you can give details...Thanks!
PS-I liked the movie (Dreyfus fan) altho some parts were hard to sit through.
There's nothing wrong with Deryfuss's acting. There is, however, a lot wrong with this film. Unless it was intended to ridicule the life a sizeable fraction of women choose to live: forever daddy's girl, childish, stubborn, not living their own life, but their family's. The movie is unrealistic in the sense that such a woman would not question her father's opinions (rather: law). A woman that wants to sleep with parents doesn't just fall in love with some random guy - she first needs her parents' permission, and a couple of months of wait & see. That kind of people only thinks of themselves. I mean, she marries a man who is much older than she, and then they have a baby. Because that makes HER happy. What about the baby? It will not have a father for a great deal of her life.
In fact, she only has a father for the first couple of months, because, and this is the real ending, Sam dies. In the middle of some frozen pond, in his wheelchair, with the baby in his arms, he just dies.
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You are completely warped. First of all, just because Dreyfuss' hair is white doesn't mean he's "much older" than Holly Hunter's character. They seemed about 10 years apart in the movie, and they are 11 years apart in real life. Your comment is really strange given the fact that many (pig-headed) men prefer and marry MUCH younger women, at least the second time around, who often end up having their baby.
She did, at times, question her father's opinion, especially when he ordered Richard Dreyfuss' character out of the house and told Renata that he was no longer welcomed. She finally told both her parents off in that scene, telling them that it's "her goddamn adventure" and that she thought that her husband was amazing.
The fact that the baby died in his arms in the middle of some frozen pond was extremely poignant, and yes, a bit chilling and somewhat unexpected. Death often is all of those things.
Hi...sorry I'm late to the party...just found this thread. LOOOOVE this movie, but FYI mmitsos-1, the baby doesn't die...just Sam.
sharesmartgggg you missed the point of this movie entirely. It is about a very close knit, Italian family and their one daughter who thought she was doing everything right, but it turns out, was on the wrong path. She watched her parents, very much in love, have a good life together, her brother married, then her sister who she is close to, and that is what she wanted. To get married, live near the family and have a more traditional family life.
Then, she finds out, unceremoniously, that the boyfriend whom she was living and thinking was going to be her husband someday, was never going to marry her. Now what? Go back to waitressing? She couldn't turn to her sister for comfort, she was leaving for her honeymoon. All she had was her parents and it comforted her in times of stress to be near them, i.e. sleep in their bed.
So Renata does something unique, and goes to St. Maarten to sell condos to people in Boston, and this is where she meets the super salesman, Sam Sharpe. He sweeps her off her feet, in part because being older, he relates to her older tastes in music and traditional values.
The conflict comes from Sam's overzealous nature and Renata standing by him, while trying to work him into her family. Sam, to his credit, loves her family just as much as she does and tries as hard as he can to make them love him too...and he succeeds.
There are so many heartwarming scenes, members of this family go from fighting over Sam, to bending over backwards to help him. And it has nothing to do with his money. It's because he "means well". That used to count for something. "Once around for the big guy!"
SPOILER ALERT
By the way, it is very telling that at the end, before the funeral, Renata walks into her parents bedroom like she is going to lay down with them - but looks at them and just says "I love you guys" and walks out. She has lost that insecurity.
Yes, if you haven't seen it by now you should rent it, at least, for the ending. There is a bit more to it, and it should give you closure. I first saw this on USA in the mid-Nineties, and while the commercials add to it's length, you don't miss much by way of story points in a for-tv version (just caught it unedited on SunDance).
I particularly like ***(SPOILERS: you can see some of these in other comments here & on these boards)***
When Sam goes to the house for Christmas, and all of the later "circle" imagery (the ice skating, etc.) that pervades this film as a manisfestation of the circle of life and how we each get to go just, "Once Around."
some need to go up 1 or down 1:
http://us.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=10088562
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I didn't think Sam died because he was old. I think he died because of some unhealthy habits. Also, what is wrong with him marrying and having kids at his age? It's not selfish. I have had a couple friends that died in their 30's. Would they have been selfish having kids? You never know when death is going to happen. Youth is not a sure-thing. Also, many people screw up in the raising of their kids because they are naturally ignorant because of youth while older people have better child-raising skills because they have matured.
"Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your head."
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So by now you know Sam dies as she skates for him. We expected him to die, but maybe not quite so soon. I was hoping he might get a few years in with the kid. I bawled my eyes out over the scene where Aiello carries Dreyfuss, who will be dead minutes later, from the car into the house for the holiday feast. He doesn't want this once super-energy guy, who has had a very close call, to have to be wheeled up the walk. Whatever he was or wasn't, Sam made his second wife laugh. And happy. By the way, there is no question in my mind that they were supposed to be about 20 years apart in age, but as I pointed out in my review, even if he can be seen as an "old man," she certainly was no spring chicken. It's not like she was 20.
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It's nice to see that so many people (comparatively) like this movie.
But I am surprised to find "versions" here that are definitely not in line with what I saw (and I watched it several times).
The baby does not die in Sam's arms (or at any point during the movie).
Sam does, while holding the baby.
Also, Sam was not to be "dead minutes later" when papa Bella carried him from the car into the house (a very impressive scene indeed!).
He died days or even weeks later, on the ice.
Exactly right.
Sam had and died of cardiopulmonary disease which is not uncommon among Type A personalities.
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