Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)
Charles is a bored civil servant struggling through a harsh Utah winter. He spends most of his time reflecting on his romance with Laura, a coworker who left him to return to her husband, an A-Frame salesman.
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Let's be realistic.
Don't listen to the negative reviews
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
This whimsical if inconsequential romantic comedy owes a lot of its idiosyncrasies to 'Annie Hall', but while not in the same league as Woody Allen it has an offbeat charm all its own. The original, numbskull title 'Head Over Heels' aptly describes love struck civil servant John Heard's fixation with married girlfriend Mary Beth Hurt. Neither character is particularly complicated, but an eccentric secondary cast and some unpredictable plot lines keep the film buoyant and enjoyable even at its most superficial, although it helps to share some of the couple's featherweight romantic angst. The script was adapted from a novel by Ann Beattie.
I saw this movie in its original release before it was pulled to be edited into Chilly Scenes in Winter. In fact, I had it taped off of HBO, then lost it or taped over it and had to buy Chilly Scenes in Winter, which disappointed me. I have yet to find the original.The first edit was the best: uplifting, love-affirming and, yes, corny, but so was the whole movie, so why change gears at the end?The entire cast seemed to have fun in their idiosyncratic roles - a real dysfunctional family that would somehow manage even today without Jerry Springer or a reality show.
This movie is a nice lil' gem, and notable for future lumanaries such as Animal House's Peter Reigert, Griffin Dunne (treemendous in After Hours) and John Heard (late of the Sopranos). But, the real steal in the film is Ms. Violet Bick herself, Jimmy Stewart's guilty pleasure in It's a Wonderful Life: Gloria Grahame.
I am a huge movie fan, and usually am a huge fan of John Heard, but this movie was one of the most depressing I've ever seen. Heard plays a semi-psychotic stalker type character that is extremely unnerving. They need to lock this up and throw away the key. I still think John Heard did a wonderful job of capturing the insanity and depression of the main character though.