The Hotel New Hampshire

This dreary satire of the post-war American family has a small but devoted following. Writer-director Tony Richardson has constructed a complex screenplay based on an even more convoluted novel by John Irving. It's a fairy tale about virtually everything and, as such, will not satisfy everybody. The film is laced with blackly humorous takes on heterosexuality, homosexuality, incest, abandonment, Nazism, masochism--a veritable laundry list of contemporary neuroses.

Father (Beau Bridges) and Mother (Lisa Banes) are the parents of a remarkable family in New England. Their children include John (Rob Lowe), a high school student; Franny (Jodie Foster), the eldest dau...