A cautionary tale about a young woman who was brought up by her father and mother in a strict catholic family. When she has an affair with her college professor, Theresa Dunn (Diane Keaton) becomes a sexual free-spirit, wishing to escape her oppressive family home and move to the city. What begins as rather innocent sexual exploration turns ugly as she becomes a slave to her own urges, spiraling quickly out of control. "Looking for Mr. Goodbar' is so sure in its conviction, that with the way the film ends, it almost comes off as laughable propaganda in it's overbearing nature. That being said, what envelopes the conclusion is a truthful, though maybe heavy-handed film, about a woman's fall from grace. Richard Brooks uses lots of great hallucinations, religious subtext and juxtaposition to create a harrowing portrait of this woman-letting the viewer really see things from her perspective. Through these hallucinations we see her wants and desires, her guilt, and her depravity. One of my favorite sequences is when Theresa learns of her father's illness: A nightmare hallucination using religious symbolism to express her guilt for her promiscuous lifestyle. While these sequences are at times a little much, they are nevertheless very effective. The film works more than it doesn't because Theresa is a character you do root for. Early on, we see that she is a good-natured person who is a very dedicated, and loving schoolteacher. These anecdotes only help to make the story more tragic as we see her late night sexual escapes and drug use begin to take over life, damaging her career. The transformation never feels forced to simply service the story, but it all feels character motivated. Diane Keaton does a great job at really capturing this good-natured individual who quite frankly has no idea the depths in which she has fallen. The film could definitely be shorter and I do think the ending is a little over-the-top, but kinda I honestly enjoyed this quite a bit regardless. 7.75/10
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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