Loving Couples

Flat champagne has nothing on this drearily predictable sitcom about a marriage crisis, solved when each partner seeks temporary refuge with a younger mate. Handsome young stud Collins, in other words, whisks MacLaine into a rejuvenating bout of disco dancing. Meanwhile Coburn, faced with the self-doubts of Sarandon's insecure young career girl, relearns the male prerogative of bolstering the feminine ego. Described as an irreverent romantic comedy about morality in the '80s, the film in fact subscribes to conventions as old as the hills and twice as rocky, burying any hints of feminist awareness beneath the routines of macho courtship. Faced with direction paced at a lethargic crawl and dialogue of inconceivable banality, the cast respond with performances of glazed charm.