A well acted, at times sensitively directed movie about relationships rather than blowing stuff up, I really wanted to like this film but found I could not. Why? Well, unlike Snoopy Style with whom I usually agree, I'm not gonna pin the blame on the kid actor, Kirk Calloway, who I actually thought was kinda good. No, I'm gonna finger scenarist Darryl Ponicsan instead for a rather sexist adaptation of his novel that neglects the most interesting character, Marsha Mason's sad/funny, boozing, irresponsible sex worker, (or as her character would have been called before the PC police started bastardizing our language, hooker), in favor of James Caan's rather bland Everyman Sailor and his equally lackluster relationship with Calloway's foul mouthed eleven year old. Think "Alice In The Cities" with a lobotomy or "The Champ" wannabe and you get some idea of this film's misplaced comfort zone. And Mark Rydell, not the strongest of directors and being an ex actor himself, is not the person who is going to stand up to Caan and tell him his story is less compelling than Mason's. C plus.
PS...Ironically wrote this on the day James Caan died and now I feel bad if I gave the impression I thought he was not a great actor. Far from it. Guy shone in both comedy and drama and at least three of his performances, Axel Freed in "The Gambler", the title role in "Thief", and of course Sonny, the ultimate tragic hothead in "Godfather 1", are among the best of the second half of the twentieth century in American films.
PS...Ironically wrote this on the day James Caan died and now I feel bad if I gave the impression I thought he was not a great actor. Far from it. Guy shone in both comedy and drama and at least three of his performances, Axel Freed in "The Gambler", the title role in "Thief", and of course Sonny, the ultimate tragic hothead in "Godfather 1", are among the best of the second half of the twentieth century in American films.