A Delicate Balance (film)

1973 US-UK-Canadian drama film
  • November 12, 1973 (1973-11-12)
Running time
133 minutesCountriesUnited States
Canada
United KingdomLanguageEnglish

A Delicate Balance is a 1973 American-Canadian-British drama film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Katharine Hepburn, Paul Scofield, Lee Remick, Kate Reid, Joseph Cotten, and Betsy Blair. The screenplay by Edward Albee is based on his 1966 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.

The film was the second in a series produced by Ely Landau for his American Film Theatre,[1] a subscription-based program of screen adaptations of notable stage plays shown in five hundred theaters in four hundred cities.

Plot

The film spans three days in the life of Agnes and Tobias, an upper middle class couple who share their comfortable suburban Connecticut home with Agnes' acerbic alcoholic sister Claire. It is matriarch Agnes who helps the trio maintain a delicate balance in their lives, held together by habit, shared memories, and considerable consumption of dry martinis.

The seemingly peaceful facade of their existence is shattered with the arrival of longtime friends Harry and Edna who, suddenly overcome by a nameless terror, fled their home in search of a safe haven. The couple is followed by Agnes and Tobias' bitter, 36-year-old daughter Julia, who has returned to the family nest following the collapse of her fourth marriage. Their presence leads to a period of self-examination, during which all six are forced to explore their psyches and confront the demons hidden there.

Cast

  • Katharine Hepburn as Agnes
  • Paul Scofield as Tobias
  • Lee Remick as Julia
  • Kate Reid as Claire
  • Joseph Cotten as Harry
  • Betsy Blair as Edna

Critical reception

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "a fine, tough, lacerating production", and added, "Richardson's cast could hardly be better".[2]

TV Guide rated the film two out of four stars, calling it "unfortunately stiff, dull, and extremely stagy".[1]

Awards and nominations

Kate Reid was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b TV Guide review
  2. ^ Chicago Sun-Times review

External links

  • v
  • t
  • e
Films directed by Tony Richardson
  • The Apollo of Bellac (1955)
  • Momma Don't Allow (1955)
  • Look Back in Anger (1959)
  • The Entertainer (1960)
  • Sanctuary (1961)
  • A Taste of Honey (1961)
  • The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
  • Tom Jones (1963)
  • The Loved One (1965)
  • Mademoiselle (1966)
  • The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967)
  • The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)
  • Laughter in the Dark (1969)
  • Hamlet (1969)
  • Ned Kelly (1970)
  • A Delicate Balance (1973)
  • Dead Cert (1974)
  • Joseph Andrews (1977)
  • A Death in Canaan (1978)
  • The Border (1982)
  • The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
  • Penalty Phase (1986)
  • The Phantom of the Opera (1990)
  • Women & Men: Stories of Seduction (1990)
  • Blue Sky (1994)