A film that draws its greatest power from its most subtle, fragile moments, "Rachel, Rachel" is a sweet coming-of-age drama where the subject is a woman neither in her teens or early twenties, but of an age where she has begun giving up on anything special ever happening to her.
Joanne Woodward embodies the title role with disarming ease, a frumpy small-town teacher who lives with her mother above a funeral parlor. Rachel's life consists largely on flashing back on her childhood and her relationship with her dead father. As summer sets in, new opportunities to experience life emerge in Rachel's life, just as she develops an appetite for change.
"Nothing is real," she says, echoing John Lennon from about this same time. "Nothing is now."
The film can be divided in two parts. The first part establishes Rachel and her surroundings in a quiet, almost eventless way. The director, Paul Newman, obviously knew actors, especially Woodward, and gives his cast ample space to find their voices. Woodward and Estelle Parsons as Rachel's teacher friend Calla were both nominated for Oscars, and Woodward and Newman both won Golden Globes, but the standout for me is Kate Harrington as Rachel's needling, passive-aggressive mother.
"I'm not criticizing, dear," she tells Rachel gleefully after discovering her daughter forgot to bring her the candy bar she asked for. "We all forget sometimes. Anyhow I got it myself. I took a nice long walk in the heat." She emphasizes that final consonant wonderfully.
The second part revolves around Nick, the guy with the key to releasing the woman inside the overgrown girl Rachel has become. James Olson gets all he can out of playing Nick, smug, coy, self-loathing. He's a fellow teacher home from the big city who Rachel knew as a boy, not all bad but prone to saying even complimentary things in a caustic way. "How polite and well brought-up you are," he tells Rachel in one of many uncomfortable moments Olson delivers well.
Terry Kiser, best known today as the title walking-dead guy from the "Weekend At Bernie's" series, shines as a charismatic preacher, while Donald Moffat plays Rachel's father in a series of enigmatic, effective flashbacks with Woodward and Newman's real-life daughter Nell Potts as Rachel. It's a real family affair; Newman himself can be heard if not seen as a character in a scary movie Rachel and Nick go see.
On the whole, this is a solid and worthwhile film, very much a product of its times yet ahead of them, too. The surreal peeks we get of Rachel's active imagination point toward the less-tethered but more scattershot mind-flipping of films to come like "Midnight Cowboy" and "Catch-22."
Newman also gets a lot of value from the more rural enclaves of Fairfield County, Connecticut, looking very beautiful but a bit oppressive. A visit to the cemetery reveals Rachel has her own grave laid out already, with a tombstone bearing both her and her mother's name!
There are things that seem under-realized. Kiser's church service is an overacted mash which feels like a shrill send-up rather than the transforming experience presented in Margaret Laurence's source novel, "A Jest Of God." Also left without resolution are some early bits of business involving the principal at Rachel's school and a little boy Rachel dreams of adopting. By the way, the boy wears a holster with toy guns to class. This really was shot 45 years ago!
Today, "Rachel, Rachel" is best known as a tour de force for Woodward, as it should be. She commands our attention even as her character seems desperate to escape our notice. Can Rachel survive in the big, bad world? You may not know for certain in the end, but Woodward, with Newman's able support, makes sure you care.
Joanne Woodward embodies the title role with disarming ease, a frumpy small-town teacher who lives with her mother above a funeral parlor. Rachel's life consists largely on flashing back on her childhood and her relationship with her dead father. As summer sets in, new opportunities to experience life emerge in Rachel's life, just as she develops an appetite for change.
"Nothing is real," she says, echoing John Lennon from about this same time. "Nothing is now."
The film can be divided in two parts. The first part establishes Rachel and her surroundings in a quiet, almost eventless way. The director, Paul Newman, obviously knew actors, especially Woodward, and gives his cast ample space to find their voices. Woodward and Estelle Parsons as Rachel's teacher friend Calla were both nominated for Oscars, and Woodward and Newman both won Golden Globes, but the standout for me is Kate Harrington as Rachel's needling, passive-aggressive mother.
"I'm not criticizing, dear," she tells Rachel gleefully after discovering her daughter forgot to bring her the candy bar she asked for. "We all forget sometimes. Anyhow I got it myself. I took a nice long walk in the heat." She emphasizes that final consonant wonderfully.
The second part revolves around Nick, the guy with the key to releasing the woman inside the overgrown girl Rachel has become. James Olson gets all he can out of playing Nick, smug, coy, self-loathing. He's a fellow teacher home from the big city who Rachel knew as a boy, not all bad but prone to saying even complimentary things in a caustic way. "How polite and well brought-up you are," he tells Rachel in one of many uncomfortable moments Olson delivers well.
Terry Kiser, best known today as the title walking-dead guy from the "Weekend At Bernie's" series, shines as a charismatic preacher, while Donald Moffat plays Rachel's father in a series of enigmatic, effective flashbacks with Woodward and Newman's real-life daughter Nell Potts as Rachel. It's a real family affair; Newman himself can be heard if not seen as a character in a scary movie Rachel and Nick go see.
On the whole, this is a solid and worthwhile film, very much a product of its times yet ahead of them, too. The surreal peeks we get of Rachel's active imagination point toward the less-tethered but more scattershot mind-flipping of films to come like "Midnight Cowboy" and "Catch-22."
Newman also gets a lot of value from the more rural enclaves of Fairfield County, Connecticut, looking very beautiful but a bit oppressive. A visit to the cemetery reveals Rachel has her own grave laid out already, with a tombstone bearing both her and her mother's name!
There are things that seem under-realized. Kiser's church service is an overacted mash which feels like a shrill send-up rather than the transforming experience presented in Margaret Laurence's source novel, "A Jest Of God." Also left without resolution are some early bits of business involving the principal at Rachel's school and a little boy Rachel dreams of adopting. By the way, the boy wears a holster with toy guns to class. This really was shot 45 years ago!
Today, "Rachel, Rachel" is best known as a tour de force for Woodward, as it should be. She commands our attention even as her character seems desperate to escape our notice. Can Rachel survive in the big, bad world? You may not know for certain in the end, but Woodward, with Newman's able support, makes sure you care.