Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990) starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Blythe Danner, Simon Callow, Kyra Sedgwick. Newman and Woodward play a middle-aged couple living in the late 1930s through the middle 1940s, dealing with changing times and their three children's desires for different lives. Mr. Bridge (Newman) is a stiff, emotionally distant father and husband, and Mrs. Bridge (Woodward) is a desperately lonely housewife who just can't get enough affection from either her husband or her children. Danner is Mrs. Bridge's best friend, Grace, who sinks into alcoholism and ultimately suicide. I can't help but feel a faithful affection for this movie, even though it's full of plot holes. I just enjoy watching it and observing the changes that all the characters go through. The film does a good job of evoking its time and its place, and it's real escapist entertainment. It's that rare thing, a portrait of a marriage between two mature people. (The subtitles, for the hearing-impaired, are highly legible.) Grade: A-