The Arrangement (1969)

Admirable film.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I guess "The Arrangement" has some merit-after all, it showcases late 1960s southern California quite well-but overall the movie is an all-star disaster due to its confusing structure and its incredibly muddled story.Los Angeles advertising executive Eddie Anderson (Kirk Douglas) has a nervous breakdown and tries to commit suicide by driving his sports car under a semi. The rest of the film flashes back to Anderson's childhood, his relationship with his dying father (Richard Boone, who was actually YOUNGER than Douglas), his deteriorating marriage with his wife (Deborah Kerr), and his torrid affair with a co-worker (Faye Dunaway). Along the way the flashbacks were very difficult to track and even harder to understand. Boone's character doesn't do much besides lie in bed, and Deborah Kerr chews the scenery as the cheated wife.I lost track of how many times the story flashed back, and I never did understand what the point of the movie was. The late 1960s time period touches were great, but otherwise I didn't really gain any understanding of the characters. Hume Cronyn, as Anderson's attorney, had about the only decent role in the whole film. If you decide to watch this mess of a film, be prepared for a lesson in confusion and expect to feel pretty empty afterward.

Eddie Anderson (Kirk Douglas) is rich, successful and losing his mind. You can tell this because as he's driving to work in his fancy convertible, he deliberately smashes his car--nearly killing him. Following this, he's distant and uncommunicative--slipping deeper and deeper into a fantasy world. He's dreaming of his lover (Faye Dunaway)--a woman who left him a year and a half ago. In the meantime, his wife (Deborah Kerr) is beside herself--she has no idea what to do. Through the course of the film, you see a man on the edge of sanity--a man having perhaps the world's world mid-life crisis. Because he's reached this age and hates who he is and what he's become--that's why this crisis is so intense.While I felt this was a painful and unpleasant film (much of it because you don't like ANYONE in the film--especially the leading man), this is not to say the picture is without merit or style. Director Elia Kazan (from his novel) creates a bizarre portrait of a man in crisis--and does it in very, very strange and creative ways. Very often through the course of the film, it becomes more and more difficult to determine what is real and what is not--and Douglas' character has conversations with himself (using a split screen), walking back in time to his childhood and examining his relationship with his parents and even runs around in the buff! It's all very artsy, surreal and strange--though not exactly something I enjoyed. It's also very adult and a film that most folks would find challenging at best, though the film would probably speak best to someone in mid-life--someone who is questioning who they are and what they are. Strange to say the least--and more like an Ingmar Bergman film than one you'd expect from Kazan. In fact, I liked the film's style much more than I liked the actual story. Worth seeing as a failed but intriguing experiment.By the way, the clip of the father on the boat coming to America is from another Kazan film, "Amerika, Amerika" (1963).

The acting and directing in this was just fine. Typical Kazan effort but the main issue with this is...the story. It's just to jumbled up and leaves too much undone at the end.The simplest synopsis I could give of this film is a guy decides to try and kill himself by driving under a semi truck...he fails. After this we go through his past life and figure out why he's had enough of his life. We find out a year before a pretty serious affair ended and this was part of the reason for the failed suicide. The other is a few things. He seems to have turned out just like his father...whom deep down...he despises. Also, he's just had enough of the life he leads. He wants a change or to just getaway from it all. I guess a mid life crisis.Throughout all this you'll get to meet his father, who is dying, and we learn that he was miserable to his wife and kids and everyone is still afraid of him. We get to see a little of his father in himself and what his family life is like. He tries desperately to get back with the girl who had a previous affair with. He loves her but I think he gets more out of her telling him like it is whereas his wife just lets things be and keeps silent...like his mother did with his father. He appreciates her for this. The girlfriend in this is not exactly a saint in this one to say the least.By the end you'll have a mixed bag of feelings on this one. The end leaves too many things left undone. All in all a good effort but needed more filler for the story. Kazan's book on this one may have been a hit but I don't think it translated well to the screen. I know that films don't all have to have answers or to have happy endings but this needed a closure to the circumstances of the many people involved. All we get is a funeral scene and a lot of assumptions. Maybe that was the intention. Maybe a mid life crisis and all involved is supposed to be....incomplete.

I wasn't expecting much out of the film, but wanted to see the performance of Dunaway and Kirk Douglas. Douglas indeed gives a very good performance and Dunaway is still gorgeous looking. The cinematography and backdrops are beautiful as well. I can tell a lot of work was put in those areas. Unfortunately that's about where it ends.Eddie Anderson (Douglas) suffers from a midlife crisis and takes on a mistress, Dunaway. There are quite a few problems with the film. The storytelling is convoluted and the method of telling it is very dry. The thing that bothers me the most are the jump cuts involving the mind of Eddie. You don't know whether he's is fantasizing about his relationship with Dunaway or whether it is merely a flashback. Other editing problems involve premature cutting of a scene. I do understand that the late sixties were very much an experimental age and a lot of today's advanced storytelling can be credited to films of that era. The Arrangement tries to comedic at times, but that doesn't work either. The acting is generally over the top, particularly that of Eddie's father who gives a horrid performance. In fact, few of the cast members really mesh. The dialog and delivery of lines is dated 50s cliché. It will put you to sleep. This bit of dialog at the end, with Faye and Eddie together, stuck out like a sore thumb: Faye's former lover burst in, shoots Eddie and says "I like you to". Kazan's career was coming to an end and this film showed it.