Rent On Golden Pond (1981)

Vapid - On Golden Pond review by Swambi

Films of this type rely on good direction, good character development and dialogue and excellent acting. Unfortunately Golden Pond fails on all these counts, despite the 'big name' cast. There was very little development of the minimal story, and the filming was restricted to a cottage and lake. The actors struggled to cope with the stereotyped and contradictory characters they had to play, resulting in 'wooden' acting that failed to engage or convince. The director used several incidents (accident, heart-attack, family conflict/restoration) to try to engage the viewer. I am usually very susceptible to any sort of emotion, but these were mostly so unconvincing that they were almost amusing.

Occasional beatiful shots of the lake, and reasonable acting by young Billy were not enough to make this worth watching. Norman Thayer's central character proved annoyingly unbelievable. At 80, he inconsistently oscillated between being totally confused and 'past it' and engaging in devastatingly erudite and witty repartee. Either extreme might be believable, but the combination was not. I much preferred other films of a similar genre - for example, Homecoming or Paradise.