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Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

bandw This story of a woman falling in love with the son of her husband from a previous marriage is an updating of an ancient story from Greek mythology to contemporary times. The premise is certainly worthy to be the basis for great tragedy, but this attempt falls a bit short.I first saw this movie in the early 1960s when I was in college and it made quite an impression on me. The fact that I remember the story and some scenes (particularly the love scene, which seems tame by modern standards) speaks well for it. But on seeing it again recently after almost fifty years its impact was much less. Maybe I originally identified with the young Alexis (Anthony Perkins) and envied his life of luxury and opportunity, but on second viewing I saw Perkins as miscast, being rather weak and ineffectual. I found that, as Phaedra, Melina Mercouri had not lost her smoldering sexiness for me. Could such a woman, used to moving among the rich and powerful in the Greek shipping industry, really fall so obsessively in love with such a callow youth of twenty-four? Alexis admitted that his affair with Phaedra was his first love affair--would such a sexually inexperienced young man be able to satisfy the worldly Phaedra? Could you picture Perkins taking over his father's shipping empire and doing all the necessary wheeling and dealing to make of go of that? I just could not buy Perkins in this role.Having said that, there are some great scenes. Both Phaedra and Alexis recognized the danger of their being together after their passionate lovemaking during Phaedra's trip to London. Both recognized the wisdom of having Alexis staying London and Phaedra in Greece. But Phaedra's husband Thanos (Raf Vallone in a good performance) wanted his estranged son to come to Greece and learn the business and he put serious pressure on Phaedra to coax him to come. A pivotal and intense scene has the conflicted Phaedra on the phone pleading with Alexis to come to Greece, knowing full well that she was inviting tragedy.The film quality on the DVD is quite good. The black and white photography is effective and occasionally striking. For example, the scene that has the crowd of women in their black cowls with their white faces starting at the camera while Phaedra barges through dressed in all white is inspired. As might be expected the score by Mikis Theodorakis adds much to the atmosphere.

laddie5 Anthony Perkins has two loves -- Melina Mercouri and an Aston-Martin DB4 -- and it's hard to tell which is more spectacularly hard, fast and beautiful. I've never been a fan of Mercouri, with her mask-like face and disembodied guttural voice, but she's ideally cast as the heroine of this modern dress Greek tragedy, and she moves through the starkly gorgeous Hydra landscape like a queen. Story, setting, costumes and photography have never done an actress more favors; inhuman as she is, you can't look away. When she snarls "I don't care if the whole world burns!" you not only believe it, you want to watch it with her. Dassin's direction is very assured throughout, for example staging a technically difficult scene on the Aegean where Raf Vallone's helicopter circles over Mercouri on their yacht and he drops flowers on her, and in such a way that we register only the outsized emotions. Two other standout moments have been noted extensively in the other comments: the stunningly filmed love scene by the fire and Perkins' final ride in the Aston-Martin, in which he dares and brings off the most wildly over-the-top scene of his career. True, he doesn't seem man enough for Mercouri, especially next to Vallone, but that's part of what makes it a tragedy.

stephenknob I happened to see PHAEDRA for the first time about 10 years ago (1997)while I was channel surfing. I was immediately immersed in its dark passion. I was stunned that so few people had seen it, and that it was not considered one of the best films ever made. I was, however, smart enough to record it. Even though I missed the opening two scenes, the rest of the film has been captured. I viewed it again last night and was as affected by the film's power as I was the first time. Merlina Mercuri was at her most beautiful. Her statuesque figure recalled the Greecian figures of ancient mythology. This allure was heightened by her stylistically interpreted wardrobe. Anthony Perkins was magnificent. His emotional vulnerability to Phaedra's overpowering, fatalistic love was played, no, lived with amazing credibility. The musical score reflected the dark, sinister passions in a way few ever do. So why isn't this film available on DVD? It is a huge discredit to a film that should be considered most memorable. I saw the film on the Arts & Entertainment channel on cable. This channel is commonly referred to as " A&E ". Perhaps they have a way getting this film copied.

georgecmclemore I saw this movie at the tender age of 19 as a down and out college drop out in Los Angeles, in 1962. Given the repressed social environment of my early youth-the deep South-this movie opened up a whole range of insights and expectations of interpersonal and physical attractions within the context of taboo, forbidden relationships. The movie is shot through with the crackle of intellectual and erotic tensions and has, in my view, the single most sensuous scene ever filmed, and there are several from which to select. The musical soundtrack has few peers in film history. A highly under-rated film at the time, and it should be resurrected for contemporary audiences.