The Prince of Tides (1991)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Good concept, poorly executed.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Meet ritzy-schmitzy, Park Avenue psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Loenstein, played by none other than "bum-note" Barbra Streisand, herself.One day when the emotionally disturbed Tom Wingo shows up at her swank office seeking help, what does this supposedly professional, highly ethical and married woman do as a means of therapy for Tom? Well, this low-down, sleazy, two-timing bitch initiates sex with him! That's right.And if that wasn't distasteful enough - Literally half of this film's running time is then given over to an utterly shitty "love affair" that immediately transpires between these two major arse-holes, Tom & Sue.We watch Tom & Sue eating cotton-candy. We watch Tom & Sue laughing so joyfully. We watch Tom & Sue skipping together along the beach. (Tra-la-la-la!) We watch so much of frickin' Tom & Sue that it makes me want to puke my guts out.You know, it really figures that it was "America's Treasure", Barbra Streisand, who's the one to be held responsible for directing this detestable crap.This movie is pure garbage! I don't believe for a minute that its story is supposed to be a statement, protesting against the sexual abuse of children.

Prince of Tides shows how one man suffers in his adulthood from the consequences of a deeply troubled childhood. Nick Nolte is the male lead who reaches a point in life where he becomes withdrawn from his wife. An attempted suicide by his sister triggers a series of events that forces him to face up to his past. Nolte is urged by his mother, played by Kate Nellgan, to go to New York from South Carolina to help his sister recover. He becomes the voice of his sister's past to her psychiatrist, Barbra Streisand as Dr. Susan Lowenstein. In trying to piece together the reasons for his sister's suicide attempt, he discovers his own ghosts and demons and in the process, falls in love with Dr. Lowenstein. Nolte shows his evolution from a rebellious and uncooperative bystander to a man who is softened by revisiting the life he and his siblings were forced to endure at the hands of their father and another incident where he, his sister and mother are physically molested. An older brother is lost in another tragedy. He returns to his mother to remind her of his tortured upbringing and to relive her own troubled past. There is a resolution at the end but like life, there is a price to be paid.

I'll start by saying that I had not read the book. Having nothing to compare the movie to, I enjoyed it very much. I was particularly captivated by Nick Nolte's portrayal and thought he was very good as a man emotionally crippled by his past. I felt he portrayed very well indeed, the many ways men deal with the suppression that they experience when trying to express emotions. We knew there was something wrong under the surface. I kept rooting for him to break through that wall. When he did, it was powerful.I think Barbara is an incredible woman who deserves credit for the whole scope of her talents and convictions. I thought she played her character with subtlety, not trying to pull the spotlight on to herself. Kudos to her for being persistent in her efforts to further women in the industry.

For me, the pleasure of watching this film again, now in 2012, is remembering just how fine an actor Nick Nolte was before he (well, I'll put it politely) "let himself go" (although my favorite performance of his was "Jefferson In Paris". But, this is a close second.Here, Nolte plays a teacher/football coach from the South Carolina coast, who is asked by his mother to go to New York City to help his sister, who has again attempted suicide. There, he works with his sister's psychiatrist -- Barbra Streisand -- to try to determine was leads the sister to her attempts at self-destruction. In sessions, Streisand plumbs the dysfunctional family in which Nolte and his sister grew up. A moderate number of flashbacks are used, some somewhat disturbing, and an abusive father and a weird mother. Meanwhile, Nolte's own marriage is dissolving. And, just to make it real fun, Nolte and Streisand develop feelings for each other. Finally, Nick reveals to Streisand that as a teen, 3 escaped convicts raped him and mother and his sister, and that his older brother shot 2 of the convicts, while his mother stabbed the other. The shock of the film is...well, best to let you discover that. Will Nick stay with Barbra? Will the sister recover? It's an excellent story by Pat Conroy, and it's difficult not to draw parallels with the kinds of work that Lillian Hellman once wrote.As I indicated earlier, Nick Nolte is superb...perhaps his finest performance. I was not as impressed with Barbra Streisand's acting here. Not that it was bad. It was fine. But I didn't quite buy into her as a psychiatrist, though I thought her scenes at the dinner party segment and her romantic scenes were excellent. And, I say that as someone who generally enjoyed her in film portrayals, and I actually feel she should have made far more motion pictures. But, I give her immense credit here for here work as producer and director and the film.Though not a large part, George Carlin is very good playing a "quite" gay friend of the sister's. All the actors do a nice job here, and it is worth noting that Barbra's son in the film really is Barbra's son.This is an excellent film with a sensitive performance by a once great actor -- Nick Nolte.