ALL NIGHT LONG (51)

Directed by: Jean-Claude Tramont (1981)

Starring: Gene Hackman, Barbra Streisand, Dennis Quaid

The Pitch: A middle-aged executive gets demoted to an all-night drugstore, takes up with a neighbour's wife, and begins to reassess his life in general.

Theo Sez: Seems the majority were right about this one back in 1981, though it's a wry and unusually diffident American comedy (with a Belgian director). It plays a bit like one of those middle-class satires of the early 70s - stuff like Irvin Kershner's LOVING - with an injection of wackiness, adding psychotic firemen, trigger-happy security guards and dentally-obsessed weirdos ("Are my teeth clean? Darn right they are! I know what my assets are! Teeth!") to the familiar mix of stale marriages and stifling corporate jobs. It's the kind of film you really want to like, but there just isn't enough there, not even a specific vibe to respond to : like the score, which veers between a STUNT MAN knock-off and a reprise of the CITY LIGHTS theme, it often seems vague and fuzzy, just a patchwork of other (and better) movies. Its only really distinctive quality is the presence of Streisand in the most surprising (and misguided) role of her career, playing a weak dumb-blonde type when her powerful intelligence has always been her trump-card. Fortunately Hackman - also cast against type, but an actor of greater range - finds the occasional grace-note : just the way he divulges his character's fondest dream, to be an inventor - the shy gleam in his eye, and the way he kind of caresses the word - make up for a lot.