Cinema Hype

I am convinced that there is an entire generation in the world today that doesn’t understand the theoretical hotness of Robert Redford. Same with Jane Fonda. It’s not our fault–we were born in the 80s, or later. To us, Redford is a Prius-driving, suntanned ex-cowboy who makes the occasional movie. Fonda is the aerobics queen. What do you want from us?

What this generation needs, I say, is a good viewing of Barefoot in the Park, Neil Simon’s 1968 New York romantic comedy. Before Redford started wearing those silly glasses and Fonda broke out the leotard, they were young. Attractive. Modern. Adorable, really. They were people we would certainly have wanted to hang out with.

That’s part of the basis of Barefoot in the Park: Paul and Corie Bratter (Redford and Fonda) get married, spend six days on their honeymoon, and then settle into a weird Greenwich Village apartment and start on the business of combining their lives. Fonda is all free-spirited, dragging her conservative (but very good-looking) new husband along with her in an endearing but slightly insensitive way. There are wacky neighbors and a hole in the skylight, and it’s all kind of charming, because we know those crazy kids will work it out. It’s like Dharma and Greg in 1968, and it’s thoroughly, thoroughly watchable.

The thing about Barefoot in the Park is that Simon’s screenplay makes everything look so easy. It’s a simple story told without flourish by a small cast of characters–it’s not a movie about fanfare, elaborate setting, or riding off into the sunset. There are just characters, and the characters rub up against each other (literally and emotionally) in a small space, and there you have it. There is nothing epic here, just small problems, the same things everybody goes through. How can a movie be so easy?

And yet that same simplicity is also what makes the movie satisfying. Without any other embellishments to distract, the audience is left with the Bratters and their situation. There’s nothing to do but stare at them as they love and fight and learn and regress and ultimately grow, and Simon’s script doesn’t try to cheat. He does the work, drags his characters with him, and lets us hope that it all works out in the end. It’s a kind of writerly honesty that only makes us admire him all the more.

That, and the casting of the cutest couple the 60s had ever seen.

classic movies, robert redford, jane fonda, barefoot in the park, neil simon, stage plays, romantic comedies