Stanley And Iris

The final film by the 76 year old Martin Ritt (he died the year of its release) is a direly formulaic romance both helped and hindered by the casting of its two stars, Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro. Whilst both are first class actors and eminently watchable screen presences, the premise that either of them are working class stiffs is never vaguely tenable whilst stylistically the film itself is so far removed from the reality it depicts as to be mind-boggling disappointing from a director whom with films such as 1958’s The Long, Hot Summer and 1979’s Norma Rae has left a considerable legacy of authenticity and dramatic conviction (most which were scripted by Irving Ravetch and his wife, Harriet Frank Jr. who also turned in their last script with this toothless collaboration).

Fonda plays Iris King, a recently widowed Michigan factory worker who shares a small house with her sister (Swoosie Kurtz) and brother-in-law (Jamey Sheridan). She meets a shy canteen cook Stanley (De Niro) and the inevitable happens through a ludicrously contrived, saccaharinely cute, drawn-out story line. De Niro has done some good work with working class types (notably The Deer Hunter, 1978 and Jacknife, 1989) but here his impassively deferential Ernest Borgnine/Marty-like character grates with inauthenticity. As for Fonda as a factory girl, simply forget about it.

FYI: For a much more convincing treatment of a similar subject check out the Johnny Cash/Brenda Vaccaro pairing in the 1981 telemovie, The Pride of Jesse Hallam.

 

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