“Smart comedies” frequently retain an attractive sheen even when their dramatic shortcomings remain as transparent as they were at first sight. The smartness, concentrated in courtship or conjugal banter, tends to be self-defeating, a brittle defense against essentially softhearted impulses.
A conspicuous example from my youth was “Two for the Road,” which Stanley Donen directed on scenically beguiling locations in the south of France from an original screenplay by Frederic Raphael. The co-stars, Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney, were introduced as a privileged but disenchanted married couple of 10 years or so. They edge toward a somewhat dubious reconciliation while motoring around the countryside, retracing routes they had first shared as hitchhiking students who fell in love and then as a couple without obtrusive grievances.
The hitches in the film’s screenplay resembled the mechanical defect attributed to the couple’s vintage MG. Part of the film’s fallible allure could be traced to a vicarious desire to crawl under the hood and tinker with the script.
Frederic Raphael does some tinkering himself a generation later. The results combine the diverting and the miscalculated with uncanny persistence. It’s not as if Mr. Raphael should have left well enough alone, because “Two for the Road” did leave room for improvement. However, retracing his steps hasn’t led to a better understanding of why marriages dissolve or endure.
Now partnered with Paul Mazursky as director, Mr. Raphael has adapted one of his recent novels, “Coast to Coast,” as a Showtime cable network feature, which debuts Sunday at 8 p.m. The updated couple on the rocks, Barnaby and Maxine Pierce, are played by Richard Dreyfuss and Judy Davis, an appealing match of distinctive, self-aware comic temperaments from the outset.
Residents of Westport, Conn., the characters supposedly contemplate a divorce and the sale of their home. The fateful decisions await an overbooked car trip to Los Angeles, where a son named Benjamin (David Julian Hirsh) is about to be married. Barney, a successful TV comedy writer, plans to give Ben the car, a red Thunderbird, upon arrival as a wedding present.
The itinerary is booby-trapped. To a fault. The family dog is left with Maxine’s sister, Vanessa (Kate Lynch), harassed by her obnoxious teenage son, Randolph (Owen Rotharmel), an armed and contemptuous farm boy who envisions himself as an actor primed for “menace.” Maxine’s beloved faculty mentor from undergraduate days, Maximilian Schell as the snobbish Casimir Michaelstadt, turns out to be nestled in a bizarre menage a trois. Barney’s old writing partner Stanley Tarlo (Mr. Mazursky), who became wealthy as a yogurt importer, is discovered at a lakeside mansion in Chicago, domiciled with a young trophy wife. A daughter named Tracey (Selma Blair) has more than one surprise up her sleeve when mom and dad arrive in Minneapolis. Finally, Maxine stirs the lingering resentment of her old flame Hal Kessler (Fred Ward) in Denver.
The filmmakers fail to validate the purported causes of disaffection between Barney and Maxine. Mr. Dreyfuss and Miss Davis suggest a fresh and promising middle-aged partnership, rather than a marriage haunted by betrayal and recrimination.
Still, Mr. Mazursky sustains a confident sense of both intimacy and locale throughout all the encounters. If nothing else, “Coast to Coast” serves as a timely reminder that Mr. Mazursky’s recent absence from theatrical filmmaking should be remedied. Especially if you expect to mount anything with a seasoned cast.
**1/2
TITLE: “Coast to Coast”
RATING: TVPG (Occasional profanity and sexual candor)
BROADCAST DATES: Exclusively on Showtime, Sunday; April 10; April 21; April 25
CREDITS: Directed by Paul Mazursky. Teleplay by Frederic Raphael, based on his own novel. Cinematography by Jean Lepine.
RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes
MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS
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