The Prince of Tides | Nancy Moore Atchison, George Carlin | Barbra Streisand was one hot piece of...

The Prince of Tides | Nancy Moore Atchison, George Carlin | One of Streisand's Best!

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The Prince of Tides

	The Prince of Tides Nancy Moore Atchison, George Carlin Sony Pictures, 2001 average customer review:based on 74 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Barbra Streisand's best film as a director is helped enormously by one of Nick Nolte's finest performances. Nolte plays a football coach who is estranged from his wife (Blythe Danner) and who enters into an affair with the psychiatrist (Streisand) of his suicidal sister (Melinda Dillon). Streisand is acceptable in her star turn, but behind the camera she paces the story very well and provides lots of room for Nolte to inhabit his burdened but likable character. George Carlin is a bit token as a gay New Yorker, although Jason Gould (Streisand's son) is good as a struggling teen in desperate need of a father figure. The whole film is worth watching just to see a great moment near the end where Nolte stands on a street, a bit slump-shouldered and wearing a look of sad resolve. It's great acting at its most minimal. --Tom Keogh

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Barbra Streisand was one hot piece of Jew-booty!

I'm a little late, but I just finished watching Prince of Tides, not to be confused with The Fisher King, for the first time yesterday. I must say I'm pleasantly surprised. For a film directed by and starring outrageously liberal Barbra Streisand, you'd think the whole film would be about abortions and homosexuality! Well, homosexuality does play a factor so I guess I'm not that surprised, but even with a Bush in the White House at the time it was made, every other sentence wasn't about a war for oil! Could it be true, were liberals at one time actually able to separate their ideology from their art?!

In this film, Tom and his 2 siblings grew up on an island in the South where their father owned a shrimping business. He was abusive and temperamental, and the mother was lying and manipulative, so in short they were your average family. His sister, Savanna grew up to be a suicidal poet, think Sylvia Plath, and his bro tried to stage a one-man coup and didn't succeed, think Al Gore. After Savannah's most recent attempt to knock herself off, Tom is summoned by her psychiatrist Dr. Lowenstein. In order to help her cure his sister, he has to delve into the family's past and reveal some troubling family secrets.

George Carlin was given the opportunity to play himself for once in the role of Savannah's flaming neighbor. I'm pleased he came out of the closet and became honest with himself about his sexuality, if even for this one role.

Dr. Lowenstein is played by Babs Streisand and I have to admit when she's acting like a lady and not screaming about George Bush she's actually...cute?...feminine? I actually found myself rooting for Tom when he was trying to make his moves on her.

What I don't understand is how Tom's revealing every embarrassing detail about his family is crucial to Savannah's recovery: she spends the whole film in a coma! Only near the end does she snap out of it; she must have sensed Tom's spilling the beans about their "dark secret" and awoke like Lady Lazarus. As the story of their childhood unfolds, Tom and Lowenstein start to fall in love with each other, and since they both have such awful marriages they decide to take a crack at an affair, but this happens much later. Certain subplots include Tom coaching Lowenstein's son in football and Tom visits his parents(now separated).

I think the ending drug a little to be honest, but not too bad. It just seems like Tom should have revealed the deep dark family secret closer to the end, instead it's like we got a premature climax here and afterwards Tom and Babs romp in a field for half an hour. The ending also could have packed a little more punch, like at the train station when Tom says "I got something for you!" and pulls a football out of his Macy's bag. It would have been so much more extreme if he'd pulled out an assault rifle and opened fire on the crowd, then firing his gun in the air ala Rambo while screaming "LOWENSTEIN! LOWENSTEIN!" Now that would have been a truly epic ending.

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One of Streisand's Best!

I think this movie is Streisand's masterpiece. It is very good and the story is very well developed. The acting from all parties is terrific and the direction by Streisand is wonderful. I saw this film when it first came out and enjoyed it very much. I know that many people who read the book were not happy but I think she pared down the book to a very manageable size. I highly recommend it.

A '90s masterpiece.

The Prince of Tides starring and directed by Barbra Streisand is a moving story. Nick Nolte is perfection in this film, I love the character development and layout. This movie is so sad and draining but the end results was totally worth it, you've got to see this one! Enjoy.

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A Perfect Movie

I haven't read the book, so my review is based solely on the movie.
I avoided watching it for a long time because I had read so many conflicting reviews. I now realize that every negative review I read has one or both of the following in common: The reviewer hates Barbra Streisand, or the reviewer thinks that, if the movie doesn't follow the book exactly, the movie is bad. Occasionally, someone will mention something else, such as a dislike of Nick Nolte or of George Carlin, but most of the negative reviews are based in those first two biases.

Fortunately, I admire Ms. Streisand, and I understand that a movie must, by its very nature, differ from the book it is based on. In some cases (High Fidelity, for example--wonderful movie, terrible book), the movie is better.

In this case, the author of The Prince of Tides co-wrote the script, so he had every opportunity to make sure that the story he was telling was true to his book, even if it wasn't a blow-by-blow exact replica.

I am so glad I saw this movie. I feel as though my life is enriched because of it. From the opening moments, I knew I was in very capable hands. The acting, directing, photography, dialog--everything in this movie is among the best there is. There is not one false step in this movie.

A lot is said in finely nuanced facial expressions and through body language--the kind of acting that is a notch above ordinary fare. Some of the topics dealt with are quite intense, and yet somehow Barbra Streisand as a director manages to handle them deftly, neither overdramatizing them nor underplaying their significance. This movie deserved every Academy nomination it got, plus one for director, and should have won far more than it did. Kudos and many thanks to Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte for this gem.

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