Themes: Midlife Crises, Foibles of Marriage, Family Gatherings
Main Cast: Jack Lemmon, Julie Andrews, Sally Kellerman, Robert Loggia, Jennifer Edwards
Release Year: 1986
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Blake Edwards co-wrote and directed this seriocomedy about a couple of rich and famous Malibuans forced to re-examine their lives and values during a weekend party celebrating the husband's 60th birthday. Jack Lemmon and Julie Andrews star as Harvey and Gillian Fairchild. Harvey is a successful architect who has attained his wealth by flattering his rich clients and compromising his ideals. Although he has everything he could want out of life, he is still unhappy. He looks at himself in the mirror and sees a middle-aged man who hates himself, feels that his children don't love him, and thinks that he is dying. Gillian, a successful singer, tries to bolster his self-confidence so that he can have a wonderful birthday. But she has problems of her own -- she has just returned from her doctor, who has informed her that she may have throat cancer. The doctor won't know for sure until the tests come back on Monday. In the meantime, Gillian tries to keep up a brave front for Harvey's celebration. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
Although he is a wildly uneven director and writer, there's one thing Blake Edwards does exceptionally and consistently well: examine people whose sense of self is largely tied up in their material goods. Jack Lemmon's Harvey is one of these people, captured in That's Life at that moment when the power of material goods begins to betray him and he doesn't have the slightest idea how to handle this news. This is potentially the stuff of good, black satire, and there are some very funny isolated moments in the movie. Nobody is better than Lemmon at embodying a character coming unglued and doing it in a manner that is both realistic and hilarious. Unfortunately, Edwards balances this with a co-existing plotline concerning his wife's possible precarious health that just doesn't work. It's sappy and synthetic, and although Julie Andrews turns in a fine performance, ultimately the viewer becomes annoyed at her for playing a martyr rather than telling her husband what is going on. The viewer also becomes annoyed at Edwards for not blending these parts more convincingly -- for example, by really examining what would motivate a wife to be self-sacrificing in this particular manner. Edwards also lets the tone of the movie veer off-course too frequently. Still, the two stars and the individual sequences that work make the movie worth catching. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Robert Knepper - Steve Larwin; Matt Lattanzi - Larry Bartlet; Chris Lemmon - Josh Fairchild; Cynthia Sikes - Janice Kern; Dana Sparks - Fanny Ward; Emma Walton - Kate Fairchild; Felicia Farr - Mme. Carrie; Nicky Blair - Andre; Jordan Christopher - Dr. Keith Romanis; Ernest Anderson - T.V. Announcer; Honey Edwards - Honey; Biff Elliot - Belmont; Gene Hartline - Stuntman; Lisa Kingston - Lisa; Donna McMullen - Woman in E.R.; Hal Riddle - Phil Carlson; Charles Schneider - Dr. Gerald Spelner; Chutney Walton - Chutney; Theodore Wilson - Corey; Deborah Figuly - Surfer Girl; Harry Birrell - Radio Announcer; Frann Bradford - Party Guest; Cora Bryant - Histotechnologist; Robin Foster - Histotechnologist; Scott L. Gehrig - Anesthesiologist; Harold Harris - Harold; Jess G. Henecke - Jesse Grant; Larry Holt - Stuntman; Joe Lopes - Band Leader; Sherry P. Sievert - Receptionist; James Umphlett - Party Guest; Eddie Vail - Surfer
Credit
Trish Caroselli - Associate Producer, Tracy Tynan - Costume Designer, Blake Edwards - Director, Lee Rhoads - Editor, Henry Mancini - Composer (Music Score), Leslie Bricusse - Songwriter, Bruce MacPherson - Songwriter, Henry Mancini - Songwriter, Jocko Marcellino - Songwriter, Deborah Figuly - Makeup, Tony Marando - Production Designer, Anthony Richmond - Cinematographer, Tony Adams - Producer, Jonathan D. Krane - Producer, Anthony Marando - Set Designer, Blake Edwards - Screenwriter, Milton Wexler - Screenwriter, Sam Cooke - Featured Music
The film was made independently by Edwards using largely his own finances and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Although Columbia released the film, Artisan Entertainment holds the rights to distribute it on DVD.
That's Life! was shot in Edwards and his wife Andrews' own beachside home in Malibu and features their family in small roles, including two daughters. Lemmon's son Chris Lemmon plays his character's son Josh, while his wife Felicia Farr puts in a brief cameo appearance as a fortune teller.
Because of the film's independent status, many of the cast and crew were paid below union-level wages, resulting in the American Society of Cinematographers picketing the film during production and taking an advertisement in Variety in protest. As a result, the original director of photography, Harry Stradling Jr., was forced to quit the film and was subsequently replaced by Anthony Richmond, a British cinematographer.
Harvey Fairchild is a wealthy, Malibu-based architect who is turning 60 and suffering from a form of male menopause. He feels aches and pains, real or imaginary, and seems unhappy with his professional and personal life.
Harvey's patient wife Gillian tries to cheer him with family get-togethers and an elaborately planned birthday party. But she secretly has worries of her own, a throat condition that could result in the loss of her voice.
Whining his way through day after day, Harvey snaps at his pregnant daughter Megan and makes rude remarks to his actor son Josh. He tries going to a priest, only to discover that the man to whom he is confessing is an old rival from their college years at Notre Dame. He also consults a local psychic, Madame Carrie, sex with whom leaves Harvey with a venereal disease.
The miserable Harvey is furious with a client named Janice Kern who can't stop revising her plans for a magnificent house Harvey has been building, but he has meaningless sex with her as well. Gillian bravely hides her cancer fear from the family, but finally, overcome with emotion, she confides in her friend and neighbor, Holly.
Harvey threatens to spoil the birthday party for everybody. He is in such a foul mood that just because a friend named Belmont tells him a depressing story about an illness, he amuses himself by introducing Belmont to the VD-infected psychic.
Gillian warns her husband that he is going to lose everything if he continues to behave this way. During his party, Gillian's doctor arrives to inform her that the biopsy test results are negative and she is going to be all right. She takes Harvey aside to let him know just how precious life really can be.
