Main Cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Kyra Sedgwick, Blythe Danner, Margaret Welsh, Simon Callow, Robert Sean Leonard
Release Year: 1990
Country: US
Run Time: 127 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (played by real-life "Mr. and Mrs." Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward) are well-to-do residents of Kansas City in the 1940s. So far as the Bridges are concerned, however, it's the 1920s, with Mr. Bridge treating his wife like property, regarding his grown children as if they're still adolescents, and habitually voting against that upstart Roosevelt. Though the underlying painfulness of such an archaic arrangement is never ignored, Mr. Bridges' obstinancy is for the most part amusing. The scene that seemed to please the audience most was the one in which Mr. Bridge orders Mrs. Bridge not to leave their table at their country club despite tornado warnings (they sit quietly in the deserted dining room while the building shakes and shudders). As for Mrs. Bridge, her "life" is totally defined by those around her--which in any other film would be a tragedy, but which here seems a logical extension of all that's gone before. Based on two separate novels by Evan S. Connell, Mr. & Mrs. Bridge is a rare excursion into Americana by the Ismail Merchant-James Ivory team. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
James Ivory and Ismail Merchant are better with the repressed emotions of Brits than Americans, but their track record eliciting memorable performances remains intact with Mr. & Mrs. Bridge. Though the film's real-life husband-and-wife team, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, were both roundly praised for their work, Woodward is the real standout, as the timid housewife whose few gestures toward independence get matter-of-factly squashed by her stern and humorless husband. Woodward is on the losing end of so many tiny skirmishes, most focused around the simple goals of lightening the mood and making people happy, that she eventually misplaces all of her resistance mechanisms. What's left is the apologetic laughter at her own foolishness, which Woodward acts with the perfect blend of practiced social grace and ingrained humiliation. Newman should be commended for accepting a part that's such a departure from his usual onscreen persona, but the performance is not without strain. It registers as so stiff and unyielding that one wonders whether it's Newman or the character who can't loosen up. A crucial flaw is that the characters never undergo transformation, a usual staple in narrative filmmaking; this could be because the script lacks spine and momentum, existing more as a series of illuminating windows into the Bridge world than a structured story. Merchant's story does produce telling observations about the inertia of idle American socialites, but they don't crystallize in a way that would deliver the film to lasting importance. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Malachy McCourt - Dr. Forster; Austin Pendleton - Mr. Gadbury; Diane Kagan - Julia; Saundra McClain - Harriet; Gale Garnett - Mabel Ong; Marcus Giamatti - Gil Davis; Linden Ashby; John Bell - Douglas Bridge as a Boy; Roch Leibovici - Watch Seller on the Quai; Robert Levine - Avrum Rhinegold; Joanna Merlin; Melissa Newman - Young India at the Pool; Remak Ramsay - Virgil Barron; Robyn Rosenfeld - Genevieve; Hubert Saint-Macary - Copyist in the Louvre; Al Christy - Judge; Nora Denney - Second Bridge Player; Richard Ross - Jazz Musician; Tom Hall - Aztec Room Waiter
Credit
Karen Schultz - Art Director, Humbert Balsan - Associate Producer, Mary Kane - Associate Producer, Joanna Merlin - Casting, Carol Ramsey - Costume Designer, David Sardi - First Assistant Director, James Ivory - Director, Humphrey Dixon - Editor, Robert Halmi, Jr. - Executive Producer, Richard Robbins - Composer (Music Score), David Gropman - Production Designer, Tony Pierce-Roberts - Cinematographer, Larry Pizer - Cinematographer, Robert Halmi, Sr. - Producer, Ismail Merchant - Producer, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Screenwriter, Evan S. Connell - Book Author
The film tells the story of a traditional family living in the Country Club District of Kansas City, Missouri, during the 1930s and 1940s. The Bridges grapple with changing mores and expectations. Mr. Bridge, played by Paul Newman, is a lawyer who resists his children's rebellion against the conservative values he holds dear. Mrs. Bridge, played by Joanne Woodward, labors to maintain a Pollyanna view of the world against her husband's emotional distance and her children's eagerness to adopt a world view more modern than her own.
