That Cold Day in the Park

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source: That Cold Day in the Park

Trailer—That Cold Day in the Park

That Cold Day in the Park

This is another of Robert Altman's underrated films(let's be honest, the only movie he's made that really didn't work was Ready to Wear), and Sandy Dennis gives a spellbinding performance in it.She is far better here than she was in "The Out of Towners". The material, I will admit, is beneath the great director Altman and the extraordinary actress Dennis, but that hardly matters anyway.As long as there allowed to do their thing and do it well, just about any story will do.

"That Cold Day In The Park" is a dreary yet absorbing in its own quiet, slow-burning way psychological thriller. There is hardly any violence in it, but it does have a couple of shocks. Its strongest asset is the wonderful performance by Sandy Dennis; Robert Altman could hardly have found an actress better suited to this role. Having to play for much of the movie physically or verbally alone (since the other major character of the film does not talk much), she manages to be, by turns, sweet, relatable, desperate, creepy, strange, and even sexy (watch for that eyebrow-raise!). None of the other actors are really up to her level, but this film is worth watching just for her - and for a taste of early Altman. **1/2 out of 4.

I remember that reviews of this movie were mostly negative when it came out in 1969. Critics were disturbed by the (spoiler) incestuous vibes and the sex-violence mixture. Years have passed, movies have focused on all sorts of unthinkable things, and "That Cold Day In The Park" no longer seems unusual. Kids from dysfunctional families do run away from home, sometmes feel lust for their siblings, and exhibit strange mannerisms. The sadness of the film is that the different ways in which the two main characters are dysfunctioning keeps them from communicating their individual needs. This is a more sympathetic study of a repressed and unstable woman than more recent garbage such as "Fatal Attraction." And of course, Altman is already spicng up is film with colorful minor characters and background conversation(the conversation in the women's clinic is very funny). Notice also how much of the film is shot through windows-making the viewer the "voyeur?"

What I find remarkable about this terrific film, is that Altman, the crazy and wild guy that he is, took the novel THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK and the Sandy Dennis character was originally a male in the book. He was a mentally whacked out isolated gay who looked out of his apartment window when he spotted the hustler. It is strange that Altman fans aren't aware of how clever he was to change the sex of the main character; thereby avoiding the homo erotic taboos of gay life in the 60's and actually making Dennis' reclusive kind of madness work even better in the transposition.If you see the film again, it will be evident how wily the Altman mind works...

Sandy Dennis plays a lonely woman who sees a young man sitting on a park bench in the rain and invites him in to dry off. He does not speak and she feeds him and buys him new clothes to wear. Dennis is perfect as the troubled lady with severe mental issues. She lives in a world of intense sexual repression, which is never fully explained. The boy turns out to be involved with the 1960's drug and free love culture. The finale is heart breaking and Robert Altman went on to a successful directorial career. Dennis won a Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and she should have one another for this film.

I would have given this more stars but for the contrived ending that sort of ruined the whole thing for me. Up until that point, I was seriously considering this work to be the equal of any work by Ingmar Bergman. Despite the corny ending, I still think that Sandy Dennis was easily the equivalent of Liv Ullman or Isabelle Hupert. It's shame that she died when she did, and I don't think she ever really received the accolades that she was due. Of course there was her work in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff", in which she played a supporting role, and lighter fare such as "The Out of Towners", but one viewing of "That Cold Day in the Park" should be enough to convince any discerning viewer that Sandy Dennis was a great talent that was taken away far too soon.