Used People (1992)

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Admittedly, I LOVE films about relationships. Perhaps this is because I am a therapist.This film is not only about finding love, but also about waking up to love that is already there. The characters grow and change in this film and if it seems uneven, this may be why. When the character of Pearl tells us early on that she never did anything she wanted in life, you doubt her ability to break away from her old life, but break away she does, carrying her mother, daughters and grandchildren with her.This film has a happy ending, but it is not all neatly tucked away in pretty packages. If you like films that say something, try this one on for size. Films of similar flavor are "Wrestling Ernest Hemingway" "Harold and Maude" and "Moonstruck" .

What a wonderful little movie! Simple story of thwarted lives and new-found love boasts one of the best casts in movie history.Shirley MacLaine stars as a Jewish widow in 1969 New York who is pursued by a strange Italian, Marcello Mastroianni. He's waited for 23 years for her to be available. She has 2 troubled daughters, Kathy Bates and Marcia Gay Harden. Bates is fat and unhappy; Harden is nuts. Her mother, Jessica Tandy, is afraid of anything new. Also along for the ride are Sylvia Sidney, Joe Pantoliano, Louis Guss, Charles Cioffi, Bob Dishy, Doris Roberts, Helen Hanft, and cute Matthew Branton.With 1969 New York as a backdrop, anything is possible. The Mets win the World Series.... We land on the moon..... And Mastroianni lands MacLaine! Simple, sweet, and beautifully acted.The accents waver a tad, but on the whole this film is well written and acted. Tandy and Sidney are splendid as the old women looking for once last thrill--they move to Florida.... Bates and Harden are heartbreaking as the bickering sisters.... MacLaine and Mastroianni are perfection.A rare chance to see 4 Oscar winners in one film!

If this is not (intentionally or otherwise) a pilot for a TV series, what is it? Episodic, altogether lacking in unity and narrative flow, there is enough caricature and stereotyping to offend the sensibilities of most Jewish- and Italian-Americans. To understand the characters' motivations, a viewer must look beyond what is presented here - i.e., must imagine why these characters act as they do, since the explanations are not forthcoming in the film. If you were left wondering what is going to happen next to Pearl, her daughters, her grandson, her new husband and his family - all of their situations left open-ended - you were more absorbed in this claptrap than most viewers are likely to be.The performances are not at all bad, but then, one-dimensional characters don't present much of a challenge.

but don't expect much else of interest. It's proof of his screen magic that one feels transported by this moment. Mastroianni seems to be freed to improvise in a lovely kitchen scene. It is always a treat to see him in a scene with children.