Loving Couples (1980) User Reviews

Hilarity does not ensue!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 21 January 2021]

I noticed that the summary for this film says 'hilarity ensues' and the film is billed as a comedy. However, if you watch the film without being told it's a comedy, you'll likely never know it, as it really isn't funny at all. Instead, it's a sad melodrama about two couples who find that they're looking for someone better...only to realize that happiness doesn't result from a new partner.

When the story begins, Dr. Evelyn Kirby (Shirley MacLaine) is seduced by a younger playboy, Greg (Stephen Collins). At first she's a bit apprehensive but then goes headlong into the affair. Soon Dr. Walter Kirby (James Coburn), Evelyn's husband, is approached by Greg's live-in girlfriend, Stephanie (Susan Sarandon), and she informs him of Greg's affair. Inexplicably, Stephanie and Walter begin an affair of their own.

The film has a decent message....that affairs don't solve a person's boredom and unhappiness. But the story itself if curiously uninvolving...possibly because I found it hard to really care about any of the people involved...they all just seemed amoral and sad. Not a bad movie but one I just found uninteresting.

Harmless but average

[Nice_Guy_Daz · 5/10 · 22 August 2000]

I saw this film on Sky at 5am so I wasn't really in the best mood to watch any film. I had an exam that I was dreading(Music GCSE) that morning and so thought some TV would calm me down.And it did.I stumbled across this little light-hearted film and watched it from the start as it had Susan Sarandon in it who starred in my one of my favourite films,The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It made me relax and forget about the terror of GCSEs for an hour and a half. It was astonishingly average but very harmless and if taken as a bit of fun then it'll be enjoyed.

Slight and forgettable.

[gridoon · 5/10 · 25 November 2000]

A trivial script, full of cliched dialogue and situations, is made endurable by appealing performances from the good cast. Susan Sarandon was already an outstanding actress by then, and the show is stolen by the sexy Sally Kellerman who plays a nymphomaniac. But overall, this very slight film isn't really worth your time. (**)

So not worth it

[HotToastyRag · 1/10 · 26 June 2017]

Everyone knows Shirley MacLaine can dance. So what happened? It's a very small part of the movie, but there's a scene where Shirley dances around to a "groovy tune" with her lover. Either she's absolutely clueless without a choreographer, or the choreographer wanted the audience to think she was completely unskilled. For me, that was the most memorable part of Loving Couples. The rest of it wasn't much better.

In the film, a middle-aged man leaves his wife for a younger woman. In response, his wife takes up with a younger man. Awkward situations, supposed jealousies, and incredibly unconvincing romances take up the screen for 90 minutes. Plus, it's pretty much the exact same plot as A Change of Seasons, also starring Shirley MacLaine, and also from 1980. Skip this one, even if you're a Shirley MacLaine or Susan Sarandon fan; it just isn't worth it.

Great Pairing of Intelligent /Funny James Coburn w/Shirley Maclaine

[GregP89 · 28 July 2011]

Recently bought a ebay DVD of this film, and like the pairing of JCoburn & Shirley, as the professional physician contempories who become attracted to each other. One of hilarious early scenes has JCoburn driving in the country side in a convertible sports car, then upon upon gazing at Beautiful Shirley galloping on a horse along the road ..he loses track of the windey turns and crashes into a fence, only to have Shirley come to his aide, being a doctor. Certainly no HOF acting yet given the free wheeling love relationships of the DISCO crazed late 70's, the movie certainly captures the time, as does a similar film "The last Married Couple in America" (GSegal / Natalie Wood) of the era. Plus, I'd bet that the "King of Cool" In-Like-Flint actor with the best "Raised Eye-Brow Look" and best deep voice in Hollywood was also among the romantic suitors of Ms. MacClaine, as she interluded on Oprah, recently. Incidentally, this film was a break from the Ultra-adventure, action packed genre movies that JCoburn was doing thru much of the 60's, 70's, & 80's. I recommend it++,..and to the Republican reviewer who commented 'not to waste your time', I say 'do you remember the 70's ?' Drop the trite 'it was a smokey time' excuses, and don't deny that era didn't happen, and smile with recollection.

This was not a turning point in the time of any of her lives!

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 12 July 2022]

Prior to her change of career into a delightful grumpy old woman after winning an Oscar for "Terms of Endearment", Shirley MacLaine had a career slouch that was not her fault, but simply based on the choice of screenplays that seemed better on paper than they would be on screen. In reflection, "Loving Couples" was nearly identical in theme to her other 1980 film, "A Change of Seasons", and both flopped. It's a good thing she had her one woman show to tour in and that Jennifer Jones turned down the role of Aurora.

The two middle-aged theme comedies of 1980 seem slight now, even though there was a handful of them for several popular actresses who were aging out of what movie executives considered box office. These still attractive actresses were certainly better than the type of film that has them involved in an affair with a much younger man, or like what MacLaine has to do here with husband James Coburn who acts all concerned over what he assumes are hot flashes or change of life. She's still quite attractive here, and even if her character is not a grumpy old woman, she has every right to be due to Coburn's assumptions and neglect even though he obviously loves her.

It's not by chance that she happens to be there riding a horse when Stephen Collins rides off the road, apparently ugly her, and ends up in the hospital. The sandy haired young man is quite the flirt, and of course it's obvious that they'll end up in an affair even though she's his doctor and he's involved with Susan Sarandon who makes a point of going to see Coburn (also a doctor) when she suspects his wife is having an affair with her boyfriend. The moral of what's good for the goose is good for the gander takes on an ultra confusing twist with the voluptuous Sarandon making a play for silver daddy Coburn.

This is definitely a plot that could have been a movie of the week had it been cast with less than A stars, and it's definitely very TV sitcom like in its method. Nan Martin and Sally Kellerman play very funny supporting characters, and Marilyn Chris ("One Life to Live") is hysterically funny as Collins' boss. I don't absolutely hate this movie, but it's just not worthy of the talent involved even though it's beautifully filmed (on the southern California coast of course), and I did like all the characters. But the situation is just so forced that is difficult not to see it other than through its deficiencies.

WOW!!!

[Marie-62 · 10/10 · 1 November 2001]

I'm honestly surprised that this isn't one of Shirley's best loved movies. I gave this a ten because of how beautifully she aged and how HOT Stephen Collins was. He now plays the gushy Brady-bunch type dad on the show 7th Heaven but here he was gorgeous. Susan Sarandon and the guy who played Walter were also really good. :) This movie is average, but harmless. I agree with that. But it's good. You look at it and think "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!" When Susan Sarandon ends up sleeping with Walter and Shirley MacLaine ends up sleeping with Stephan. I mean there's at least a 20 year difference between both of those couples. Still, it was cute to say in the least. I loved it. 9 or 10.