A very interesting soaper, certainly much better than the Maltin review gives it credit for. The sharp dialogue is probably its best feature; the characters say things very bluntly and pseudo-honestly, like people struggling to be clever when they know, as members of a "postmodern" generation, that it's all been said before and they are doomed to re-enact old cliches themselves. They understand their own ailments and continually refer to how spoiled, afraid and enervated they are. Plot is in territory similar to "Splendor in the Grass" (love is a sickness you grow out of and can eventually re-create where you have settled) but it's real subject is how restless, discontented people spread their unhappiness around, and how this is symptomatic of these modern times. Despite Wagner playing trumpet (he does not make any attempt to sound like Chet Baker, although he IS pretty) and Pearl imitating Billie Holiday (down to a performance of "God Bless the Child") with some unfortunate prescience before Holiday's death, this is not really a music film. It's like a delayed "beat" movie that should have been made in the 50s. (Hollywood is always some years behind.) 40 years later, we needn't worry whether it seems out of date; time has been kind to this film.
