A Delicate Balance 1973: Movie and film review from Answers.com

A Delicate Balance
DVD cover
Directed by	Tony Richardson
Produced by	Ely A. Landau
Written by	Edward Albee
Starring	Katharine Hepburn Paul Scofield Lee Remick Kate Reid Joseph Cotten
Cinematography	David Watkin
Editing by	John Victor-Smith
Distributed by	American Film Theatre
Release date(s)	December 10, 1973
Running time	133 minutes
Country	United States Canada United Kingdom
Language	English

A Delicate Balance is a 1973 drama film directed by Tony Richardson. The screenplay by Edward Albee is based on his 1966 Pultizer Prize-winning play of the same title.

The film was the second in a series produced by Ely A. Landau for his American Film Theatre,^[1] a subscription-based program of screen adaptations of notable stage plays shown in five hundred theaters in four hundred cities.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Critical reception
4 Awards and nominations
5 References
6 External links

Plot

The film spans three days in the life of Agnes and Tobias, an upper middle class couple who share their comfortable suburban Connecticut home with her acerbic alcoholic sister Claire. It is matriarch Agnes who helps the quartet maintain a delicate balance in their lives, held together by habit, shared memories, and considerable consumption of dry martinis.

The seemingly peaceful facade of their existence is shattered with the arrival of longtime friends Harry and Edna who, suddenly overcome by a nameless terror, fled their home in search of a safe haven. The couple is followed by Agnes and Tobias' bitter, 36-year-old daughter Julia, who has returned to the family nest following the collapse of her fourth marriage. Their presence leads to a period of self-examination, during which all six are forced to explore their psyches and confront the demons hidden there.

Cast

Katharine Hepburn as Agnes
Paul Scofield as Tobias
Lee Remick as Julia
Kate Reid as Claire
Joseph Cotten as Harry
Betsy Blair as Edna

Critical reception

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "a fine, tough, lacerating production" and added, "Richardson's cast could hardly be better." ^[2]

TV Guide rated the film two out of four stars, calling it "unfortunately stiff, dull, and extremely stagy." ^[1]

Awards and nominations

Kate Reid was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture but lost to Linda Blair in The Exorcist.

References

External links

A Delicate Balance at the Internet Movie Database
A Delicate Balance at Allmovie
A Delicate Balance at Rotten Tomatoes

v • d • e The films of Tony Richardson

1950s	Look Back in Anger

1960s	The Entertainer • Sanctuary • A Taste of Honey • The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner • Tom Jones • The Loved One • Mademoiselle • The Sailor from Gibraltar • The Charge of the Light Brigade • Laughter in the Dark • Hamlet

1970s	Nijinsky: Unfinshed Project • Ned Kelly • A Delicate Balance • Dead Cert • Joseph Andrews

1980s	The Border • The Hotel New Hampshire

1990s	Blue Sky

Productions	"Tales from Soho" (1956) • Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)

Television	Othello (1955) • It Should Happen to a Dog (1955) • "BBC Sunday Night Theatre" (1955) • "ITV Play of the Week" (1956) • "The Sunday-Night Play" (1960) • A Death in Canaan (1978) • The Penalty Phase (1986) • Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun (1988) • Women and Men: Stories of Seduction (1990) (with Frederic Raphael and Ken Russell) • The Phantom of the Opera (1990)

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A Delicate Balance