Barely released in theaters, BED & BREAKFAST is nevertheless a low-key charmer from director Robert Ellis Miller recalling, though not quite as good as, his earlier REUBEN, REUBEN.
In a picturesque but rundown bed and breakfast hotel just outside one of those New England coastal towns populated entirely by crusty but lovable eccentrics, widowed Ruth (Colleen Dewhurst) lives with daughter Claire (Talia Shire) and granddaughter Cassie (Nina Siemaszko). Also a widow, Claire has
been emotionally traumatized by revelations in an expose biography that her late husband, a famous 1960s activist, was a philanderer. But she still believes fervently in those ideals and tries to foster them in Siemaszko with a fundamentalist's zeal that has driven a wedge between them.
Nevertheless, Cassie has put off pursuing her budding career as a musician and composer and Ruth avoids the romance she still fervently desires, both in order to care for Claire and help her through her troubles.
Their lives are shaken up by the arrival of Adam (Roger Moore), a charming con man who literally washes up on shore one day near their home, having been thrown off a boat by one of his wealthy victims. Concealing his past, he feigns amnesia to protect his "hostesses" from the possibility that the
person who pitched him off the boat may come looking for him to finish the job. He also feigns skills as a handyman to earn his room and board. But he proves instead to be a skilled handyman of the heart in helping all three women get more out of life.
Adam encourages Cassie in her career ambitions, leading her to decide to move to New York City. Nudging Ruth leads her to finally bed the crusty but lovable lobster fisherman with whom she's had a long-running platonic relationship. He intervenes more directly with Claire, bedding and falling in
love with her after a contentious courtship. But a run-in with the bad guys reminds Adam that his past could be a recurring problem. He steals away in the middle of the night. Showing her renewed zeal for life, Claire encourages her daughter to leave and her mother to move in with her lobster
fisherman. She sells the bed and breakfast and joins Adam, who had earlier dropped hints about where he might head, to pursue her own ambitions to paint and run a coffee house.
Cindy Myers's screenplay could easily be criticized for being both fanciful and predictable. In its broad outlines, the plot for BED & BREAKFAST reads more like a pilot for a sitcom than a feature film, which could explain its quick route to home video. Details, however, are what count in a film
like this. Miller's direction works well to minimize the screenplay's real weaknesses--a tendency towards melodrama in the plotting and preachiness in the dialogue--and play up its strengths--a respectfulness and genuine affection for its characters that prevents them from turning into
stereotypes. Miller's particular strength is with actors. Has either Tom Conti or Kelly McGillis ever been as memorable as they were in REUBEN, REUBEN?
In one of her last performances, Dewhurst enlivens her familiar gritty authority with a sensuality usually denied women over 40 in Hollywood productions. Moore, meanwhile, though scarcely younger than Dewhurst and old enough to be Shire's father, is nevertheless nicely understated and plausible as
the kind of worldly and world-weary man who might be just what the doctor ordered for Shire's grieving widow. He's more likably roguish than slick and even though his pairing with Shire is a given from the outset, it's not treated as a given in the screenplay, direction or Moore's performance.
Hers is a love he has to earn. And it's one worth earning.
Shire's usual intensity works well here to define her character; combining a fiery passion and intelligence with a hard-headed integrity, she convinces that she would be a prize for any man. Siemaszko also well conveys her character's inherited passion, pride and intelligence despite an odd
inconsistency in her character that has her neurotically embarrassed by her rapidly burgeoning physical womanhood while at the same time she's supposedly engaged in a no-sweat sexual relationship with her boyfriend.
While lacking the sharp wit brought to REUBEN, REUBEN by screenwriter Julius Epstein, BED & BREAKFAST has ample compensations in its performances, genuine good vibes and New England setting. (Adult situations.) leave a comment
