Film

Up Close & Personal (1996)

Director: Jon Avnet

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A soppy May-December romance masquerading as a deadly earnest issues movie (script by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, 'suggested' by the book Golden Girl by Alanna Nash). Pfeiffer is Tally Atwater, a perky klutz who dreams of being a TV news anchor. She's picked up by respected old pro Warren Justice (Redford). If Nicole Kidman had had a Warren, she'd have had no reason To Die For. Warren thinks Tally 'eats the lens'. She's 'hungry', so he gives her a 'live feed'. With a little mood music from Celine Dion, they do the do, but Tally's career takes off, while the obstinately sanctimonious Warren is deemed too political for TV (think Broadcast News without the wit, A Star Is Born without the alcohol). Somehow the film-makers spin this dramatic vacuum out for another hour or so, putting Ms Pfeiffer in a new hairdo every few minutes to relieve the tedium, until finally they come up with the TV-reporter-in-a-prison-riot routine. Blow-dried, bleached blonde-on-bland entertainment.

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