On his 50th birthday, a Seattle factor worker meets an attractive bar maid and falls in lust with her, leaving his family for her. The acting is excellent, particularly Hackman as the man having a middle-age crisis, Burstyn as his devoted wife, and Madigan as their angry daughter. Unfortunately, the film feels stale, a tiresome rehash of a theme that has been covered too often. With a clichéd script and plodding direction, it feels like a TV movie. The first half is particularly bad, as it tries too hard to establish Hackman as a good guy in a dead-end marriage. It gets better after that, but is ultimately less than satisfying.
Review of Twice in a Lifetime
