T.R. Baskin is a 1971 American drama film directed by Herbert Ross. The screenplay by Peter Hyams focuses on a naïve young woman who moves to Chicago with the hope of finding romance and a fulfilling career.
The film was released as A Date with a Lonely Girl in the United Kingdom.
Plot
When Jack Mitchell, a lonely, middle-aged salesman from Utica, New York, meets his old fraternity brother Larry Moore while on business in Chicago, he asks him to introduce him to a nice woman. Larry gives him T.R. Baskin's phone number, and Jack invites her to visit him at his hotel. Following an awkward silence, the two end up in bed, where T.R. begins to tell Jack about her past, a story that unfolds via flashback.
After moving to Chicago from a small town in Ohio, T.R. is forced to rent a studio apartment in a dilapidated building in a less-than-desirable area of the city due to her precarious financial situation. She finds employment as a typist in a large corporation where she meets Dayle Wigoda, who arranges a blind date with her boyfriend's wealthy friend Arthur, who proves to be an obnoxious bigot and misogynist. T.R. realizes she'd rather be alone than spend time with such a callous individual.
One night, after leaving a noisy bar, T.R. sees Larry reading a book at the window of a café. She joins him at his table and learns he edits and publishestextbooks. The two go to his apartment and discuss their individual disappointments. Divorced, Larry misses spending time with his children. T.R. confesses she always has felt like an outsider. The two make love, and the following morning T.R. feels she finally has taken the first step towards an intimate relationship, only to discover Larry has put a $20 bill in her coat pocket. Feeling betrayed and humiliated, she rushes out. At home, T.R. calls her parents for consolation but instead receives a lecture about her decision to move to Chicago.
Back in the present once again, T.R. and Jack agree they're glad they met each other, and T.R. leaves the hotel, optimistically believing better days are in her future.
Production
The film was shot at various Chicago locations, including the Carson Pirie Scott department store, the Sherman House Hotel, the First National Bank Building, and O'Connell's Coffee Shop on Rush Street. [1]
Cast
Critical response
Vincent Canby of the New York Times noted the title character "is never at a loss for words, most of which sound as if they had come straight from the notebook of a writer who spent most of time jotting down funny lines without ever worrying much about character. It thus falls to Candice Bergen, a beautiful actress who projects intelligence, humor, vulnerability and self-reliance — all more or less simultaneously — to make something credible of the mouthpiece character written for her by Peter Hyams. . . . Somewhere deep inside T.R. Baskin, there is, I suspect, a real, touching film crying to get out with something more than a wise-crack, but neither Hyams, nor Herbert Ross, the director, have been able to find it." [2]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the film "gets in trouble right off the bat with a flashback style that neatly drains away all of our interest in half of the story" and added, "The problem is that everyone in the movie acts so stupidly. Real people of average intelligence would have cut through this plot in about three minutes, and the movie would have been over. It lasts two hours only because people are at such pains not to catch on." [3]
Time stated, "Peter Boyle . . . and James Caan . . . do the best they can, which is extremely well indeed, but the movie's clumsy feints at sophistication and its grotesque sentimentality prevail." [4]
Variety said the film "makes a few good comedy-comments on modern urban existence, but these are bits of rare jewelry lost on a vast beach of strung-out, erratic storytelling . . . Peter Hyams' debut production is handsomely mounted, but his screenplay is sterile, superficial and inconsistent . . . Bergen's screen presence is too sophisticated for the role, and both her acting, direction and dialog result in confusion." [5]
TV Guide rated the film 1½ stars and commented, "Although she raises some interesting questions, Bergen's character evokes neither the sympathy nor the interest intended." [6]
References
External links
T.R. Baskin at the Internet Movie Database
