10/10
May be talky, but haunting and effective
22 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
While this film adaptation of the play is a bit more dialog than real life, that is the point as we learn the characters and what they have lived through.

Patricia Neal, always noteworthy, comes through as the caring but somewhat lost and unloved (by a faithless Jack Albertson). Martin Sheen as returning son from the war, and how this affects each of them in subtle forms.

A lackluster apartment in the city, a few nights out to celebrate Sheen's return home. Where we see Jack Albertson's tawdry affairs, alternate life, while he has made a success at business, his personal life is one of chasing thrills.

Neal is not the duly accepting housewife, however. She takes a bus trip to the beach, there are several reflective scenes where she is alone, contemplating perhaps what her life may have been had she not married, had she taken that job at a law firm...etc. The what-ifs in life.

Sad and disturbing with excellent performances all-around. Rarely do we see films that touch personal emotion like this today, sadly. 101/10.
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