A Change of Seasons
Picture: B-
Sound: C+
Extras: C+
Film: B
When A Change of Seasons opened in
theaters during the Christmas season of 1980, third-billed Bo Derek was still
red hot from Blake Edwards’ comedy hit 10 the previous year,
and it was sold basically on two images: A naked Bo in a hot tub with
Anthony Hopkins, and a naked Bo inviting Hopkins to join her in the
shower. Those are indeed sexy moments involving one of the
most gorgeous women ever to grace the screen, but A Change of Seasons
is actually a good, well-written little movie, and not merely an excuse
(like Bo's subsequent two films) to showcase this real-life 10 in her birthday
suit.
Hopkins plays a 42-year-old English literature professor named
Adam Evans, who's cheating on his 41-year-old wife, Karyn (Shirley MacLaine),
with a beautiful 20-year-old student, Lindsey (the bodacious Bo). When
Karyn finds out her longtime husband's been unfaithful she naturally gets
angry, but decides to get even. One morning, a twentysomething
handyman named Pete (Michael Brandon), hired by Adam to build some
bookshelves, shows up in the Evans' kitchen, and Karyn promptly seduces him.
Before long, Adam and Karyn are off to their country home for
a winter getaway, only this time arriving separately with their
much-younger lovers. More complications ensue once the Evans' college-age
daughter (Mary Beth Hurt) and Lindsey's wealthy lothario father (Edward Winter)
join the fray -- fans of TV's M*A*S*H will surely
recognize Winter as the paranoid Col. Flagg.
Directed by Richard Lang (with some uncredited work being done by
director Noel Black according to the IMDB) and co-written by Erich Segal of Love
Story fame, A Change of Seasons is a smart and
entertaining post-sexual revolution infidelity comedy that probably came along
about a decade too late. The movie seems more akin to something like Bob
& Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), and probably would have had
more box-office success and been considered more cutting edge back
then.
A Change of Seasons is also an example of the kind of adult,
literate mainstream movie the major studios used to release on a regular
basis up until about the middle 1980s. Aside from those two titillating
scenes with Bo, the film is essentially a low-key character piece that's
content just to observe how a set of characters react to an
unconventional, uncomfortable situation. The ending is also a
lot more ambiguous than you'd expect it to be, and I was pleasantly
surprised when it didn't settle for a typically contrived, happily-ever-after
conclusion. And despite its hip, occasionally flippant attitude
toward extramarital affairs, the film does ultimately admit that
infidelity has negative consequences.
The film was distributed by 20th Century Fox at the time, but
today such a mature film that doesn't easily fall into a single genre would
likely only get made as an indie. It's another of
those interesting, largely-forgotten catalog titles from the Fox library
that Anchor Bay has released on DVD. The film's been given a solid 1.85:1
anamorphic transfer with nice picture quality and OK Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
sound. The extras include the original theatrical trailer as well as
trailers for two other Fox films already out on DVD from Anchor Bay (The
Turning Point, also starring Shirley MacLaine, and the romantic comedy
Only the Lonely). Also
much appreciated is Anchor Bay's inclusion of the film's original poster art on
the insert inside the DVD case. This is always a nice little added bonus
for true film buffs.
- Chuck O'Leary
