Main Cast: Craig Wasson, Jodi Thelen, Jim Metzler, Michael Huddleston, Reed Birney
Release Year: 1981
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Also known as Moritorium and Georgia's Friends, Four Friends follows the titular quartet from high school to young adulthood. The film is set during the tumultuous 1960s, an era when everyone's values were turned inside out, shaken around, and reassembled. The central character is first-generation American Craig Wasson, who confounds his Yugoslavian father (Miklos Simon) by pursuing his own let-it-all-hang-out lifestyle. Wasson's best friends are athlete Jim Metzler and chubby Michael Huddleston; all pursue the affections of bewitching Jodi Thelan. Though they are obviously deeply in love with one another, Wasson and Thelan continue to foolishly avoid a long-term commitment as the sixties unfold around them. Four Friends calls for a fresher approach than the one offered by director Arthur Penn, whose handling of the material is much too pat and old-fashioned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
This stab at an epic drama about the 1960's has some interesting scenes but ultimately falls apart. Steve Tesich's autobiographical script is heartfelt but unfocused: it never finds the right balance of personal drama and social allegory it is looking for and suffers from some abrupt transitions at key dramatic moments that pull the viewer out of the story. It's also so stacked with characters that some never get to develop properly (with the exception of one key scene, the character of Jim gets to do little besides stand around). Arthur Penn's direction is sensitive to his actors but it suffers from an unsteadiness of tone like the script: a few moments that veer into high comedy or unexpected tragedy are jarring and work against the story's flow. In terms of performances, there is a winning turn from Craig Wasson as main character Danilo but Jodi Thelen's overstated, oft-campy work as Georgia makes the character annoying when she should be mesmerizing. In fairness to Thelen, the script often forces her character to act out in illogical ways but the overall lack of subtlety in both writing and performance work together to make this characterization ring false -- and that's a major problem because the film depends on her character being some mythical representation of youthful American freedom. In short, Four Friends is an intriguing but deeply flawed work that strains under the weight of its own ambitions. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
Julia Murray - Adrienne Carnahan; David Graf - Gergley; Zaid Farid - Rudy; Miklos Simon - Mr. Prozor; Elizabeth Lawrence - Mrs. Prozor; Beatrice Fredman - Mrs. Zoldos; James Leo Herlihy - Mr. Carnahan; Lois Smith - Mrs. Carnahan; Petrea Burchard - Lady Flag Burner; Paul Greco - Car Thief; Glenne Headly - Lola; James Maxwell - Hippie; Natalia Nogulich - Vera; Mercedes Ruehl - Woman in Taxi; Felix Shuman - Principal; Dick Sollenberger - Doctor; William Theiss - Georgia Miles; George Womack - Mr. Bellknap; Jim Netzler
Credit
Julie Arenal - Choreography, Pat Norris - Costume Designer, Cheryl Downey - First Assistant Director, Arthur Penn - Director, Marc Laub - Editor, Barry Malkin - Editor, Michael Tolan - Executive Producer, Elizabeth Swados - Composer (Music Score), David Chapman - Production Designer, Ghislain Cloquet - Cinematographer, Stephen F. Kesten - Producer, Arthur Penn - Producer, Gene Lasko - Producer, Robert Drumheller - Set Designer, Nathan Boxer - Sound/Sound Designer, David Chapman - Screenwriter, Steve Tesich - Screenwriter, Steve Tesich - Book Author
The titular quartet are Yugoslavian-born Danilo Prozor, who arrived in America at the age of twelve and ever since has been trying to distinguish between the reality of his adopted homeland and the idealistic vision of it he brought with him; overweight, Jewishmama's boy David; Tom, the attractive WASPjock who has a way with the ladies; and free-spirited, self-assured Georgia, who fancies herself the reincarnation of Isadora Duncan, dreams of a successful career as a dancer, and is loved in turn by each of her three friends.
The film is a series of vignettes whose primary focus is on Danilo - his conflicts with his father, his struggles with his heritage, his courtship and thwarted marriage to Long Island debutante Adrienne Carnahan (sister of his college roommate Louie), and his lingering relationship with Georgia.
In his review in the New York Times, Vincent Canby called it "the best film yet made about the sixties" and added, "It has the quality of legend, a fable remembered . . . [It] is one of Mr. Penn's most deeply felt achievements, ranking alongside Bonnie and Clyde, Alice's Restaurant, and Little Big Man. For Mr. Tesich, it is another original work by one of our best young screenwriters." [1]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described it as "a very good movie" and commented, "The wonder is not that Four Friends covers so much ground, but that it makes many of its scenes so memorable that we learn more even about the supporting characters than we expect to." [2]
TV Guide rates the film three out of a possible four stars, saying it "attempts to cover so much ground that at times the film becomes frustratingly muddled," and adding, "Though [it] runs out of gas toward the end, it's filmed with obvious love for the characters and features outstanding performances from the underrated Wasson, Thelen and Simon. Well worth seeing." [3]
Time Out New York says, "Although its episodic narrative entails a certain lack of unity, it's nevertheless an ambitious and impressive work . . . A dense but never pretentious film that manages to convey the atmosphere of the '50s and '60s succinctly, it offers delights galore, not least a light, perceptive wit and an unsentimental ability to touch the emotions." [4]
Channel 4 calls it a "stodgy, sentimental brew" and "a well-meaning film that doesn't really amount to much in the long run." [5]
