Steineded
How sad is this?
Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Darin
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Rodrigo Amaro
If watched in 1987 "Nadine" could be labeled as one terrible movie which only wasted time, energy, money and a good cast on a loose plot. But when one watches this now, one must see it in a different light. It's far from being bad. It's very cool actually. Take two attractive actors, make them as an unusual pair in between loving and hating each other, trying to survive dangerous people and thrilling situations, then you have a movie. And quite a short one (78 minutes). What prevents "Nadine" of being found good by viewers relates in seeing who's involved in it and why they're stuck with such a heavily clichéd, flawed picture. Why Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger would star in something like this, playing loud, talky, cheap characters who try to be smarter than smartness itself? Or why Academy Award winner Robert Benton would go forward in writing and directing such a strange project? The conclusion reached was that this was a way of doing something fun, a child's play. Hollywood indulging itself with plenty of fun in the making and hoping people notice that and perhaps enjoy it for what it is. In this department, as being a fun work, it succeeds despite the pros and cons. Today it's easier to make things like this and with better results ("Ocean's Eleven" is a living proof of this, a movie made among friends, very easy and it became quite profitable, going with two more sequels). How come no one notices that in this film? It's not trying to convey messages or have a higher purpose, it's just a small entertainment, fine. It's the kind of story presented time and time again in countless pictures: Nadine (Basinger) testifies a murder, then she gets chased by people involved in it who want something she might have taken out from the victim, something that belongs to them. Endangered and with nothing better to do, she contacts her soon to be ex-husband (Bridges), a lousy bar owner drowned in debts and misunderstandings, who's desperately for divorcing his wife to marry his new girl (Glenne Headly) as fast as possible. Fun thing about this is seeing the story made in the 1950's, for whatever reasons. Basinger and Bridges make a very exciting couple, they're pretty good together. Hearing their accents might be a problem to many, I think it's quite hilarious at parts. Not much of an intelligent, brilliantly written comedy, it just goes in presenting goofy situations and bright action sequences (final shootout is the best and also the bit with the snakes in the room). Final analysis: it never gets great as it could be and even gets weary in such short running time but it's an amusing film, well acted by everyone involved, and with a nice soundtrack. Let go of everything and just enjoy the show. It manages to save the day. 6/10
douglaswilson
Let me begin by saying I am just astonished to see the low average of viewer comments for this splendid movie. I just have to figure the commenters are a bunch of Yankees who never set foot in the South and have no feel for the slow, quiet humor that this fine film represents.But even that cultural adjustment doesn't explain the complete failure of these other reviewers to appreciate a really finely drawn comedy, from beginning to end. This is a wonderful work by the fine writer and director Robert Benton, who defies the axiom, Comedy is hard. He makes it look easy.What he did was simple, looking back, but so very hard for most people to do: He set up a funny plot and kept it funny from one scene to another, by keeping it low key and letting the characters carry the humor lightly, one slightly ridiculous moment after the other, thus avoiding the great comedic danger: You can kill comedy by overworking it.Benton takes a plausible story about some Texas corruption and discovered maps with some amusing twists to it and jacks it up with some great dialogue and some fine actors -- mostly Southern, as it happens: the fine actor Rip Torn (birth name, Ripley J. Torn, Jr., Texas) and Kim Basinger (Alabama). Robert Benton himself is from Waxahatchie, Texas, and wrote the screenplay with full knowledge and confidence of the plausibility of the plot and the reality of his characters.Folks, I know lots of people like these characters. So do you. Good people, simple people, women who on the phone who soon ask, How's yer Mom 'n 'em? And Benton has given them a moment of great adventure and humor.A few gems: Jeff Bridges: "I'm not in the Vernon Darlin' business anymore." Basinger naming her early fetus Doris Isabel and talking to her. Rip Torn: "Why is it you work your butt off all your life to get ahead and it takes two nitwits about ten minutes to screw the whole thing up." And in her most glorious beauty, Glenne Headley as the girlfriend, full of Texas spunk.I truly pity the Yankees and Californians west of Bakersfield who cannot see the beauty of this film. But you know what? We don't need you. This movie is like Elvis. It will live forever.
k h
I say 'surprisingly' because the rating is so low, I didn't know what to expect.But it's a delightful little caper movie, driven (as all good movies are) by the performers and a tight script by Robert Benton, not known for his enjoyable caper movies!Jeff Bridges all but steals the film from a delightful Kim Basinger, and the two of them together set the screen on fire. They are surrounded by some of the best character actors working today, including Rip Torn. As I was watching this I thought how smart Robert Benton is for casting real actors, and having the comedy come out of their behaviour and talent, rather than casting 'wacky comedians' and reducing the story to little bits.A lot of fun, and worth seeing.
screamer-13
I thoroughly enjoyed this comedy caper movie set in the Deep South, and I can't understand why it has such a low average vote. Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges play a divorced couple who team up to solve a murder mystery and end up re-igniting their relationship. The two have a good on-screen chemistry which, along with the comic-book-style humour and plot, is what makes the movie. All in all an enjoyable comedy/romance/thriller/caper/adventure affair with style and wit. 9/10
