Movie Review – Twice in a Lifetime (1985)
twice in life
Starring Gene Hackman, Ann-Margaret, Ellen Burstyn, Amy Madigan, Brian Dennehy and Ally Sheedy
Directed by Bud Yorkin
Written by Colin Welland
Reviewed by David Wisehart
twice in life It’s just not enough. Yes, it’s got stars galore, a semi-social conscience, and even a Paul McCartney theme song.
What it doesn’t have is a story.
The first third of the film is spent opening birthday presents; the last third is devoted to wedding preparations; and the film’s most exciting moment comes at a Seattle Seahawks home game, watching fifty thousand screaming fans do The Wave.
It just gets the blood rushing through your veins, doesn’t it?
The only really interesting thing about twice in life is watching Gene Hackman transform a perfectly mediocre role into one of his best performances.
Hackman plays everyman Harry Mackenzie, a happily married, hard-working, hard-drinking, and loving man who falls for a middle-aged waitress (Ann-Margaret) on her fiftieth birthday. Although he still loves his wife very much, he recognizes that this is his only chance at a kind of rebirth, a return to the happier and more spirited days of his youth, a chance that he just presents himself, well. .. twice in life.
The territory is familiar, and director/producer Bud Yorkin (a veteran of such notable winners as american style divorce and deal of the century) rarely strays from the beaten path of earlier and better films. They reserve us no surprises and few moments of true dramatic tension.
The strongest scene in the film is the one in which Harry’s daughter (Amy Madigan) and his wife (Ellen Burstyn) confront him and his lover in the workers’ bar. His daughter is all dynamite and firecrackers, while his wife waits quietly in the shadows, avoiding confrontation. She’s the only dramatic spark in the whole picture, a moment starring forcefully for Madigan in one of her best performances.
Indeed, the acting is exemplary throughout. Brian Dennehy, that big bear of a man seen earlier in cocoon and pale rider, is convincing as Hackman’s longtime friend and drinking partner. Ann-Margaret and Ellen Burstyn provide solid support in their contrasting roles, and Ally Sheedy, as Hackman’s other daughter, proves once again to be one of the most talented young actresses of the 1980s. Sheedy is somewhat disappointing in its brevity. With the exception of the climactic (anti-) scene, she rarely appears on screen, which leaves us wondering how much she sacrificed herself on the cutting room floor.
Still, this movie is undeniably Hackman’s. In his first real attempt at playing a romantic lead, Hackman manages to be sympathetic and strangely heroic in the face of self-induced adversity. It’s a small job, a modern Willy Loman of the steelworker crowd. He thought the work of him in twice in life can’t hold a torch to your paranoid interceptor in The conversation or his Popeye Doyle in the french connection (two of the best movies of the early ’70s), Hackman almost saved this movie from vacant oblivion.
Almost.
Aim twice in life he’s too confused technically to let his strong team win the day.