charlywiles
I'd heard of this film for years and always wanted to see it. I got my chance on TCM tonight and I wasn't disappointed. What a wonderful, heartbreaking little film. It's definitely a tearjerker, but the film is also filled with delightful humor, especially in the scene where the doctor calls on Victor Moore. Come to think of it, I was laughing so hard that I found myself crying during this scene as well. Both Moore and Beulah Bondi are a delight as the elderly couple and their scenes together at the end, at the hotel, are perfection. Another highlight is the scene where Thomas Mitchell must tell his mother (Bondi) that they may have to put her in a home and she turns the tables on him by making him think it was her idea. It's just wonderfully and touchingly acted by two terrific performers playing mother and son. The script, direction and fine acting from the cast all come together to make this picture a gem that is still relevant today. Be sure to catch this movie if you can - you'll be glad that you did.
MisterWhiplash
Something I thought about, and felt more deeply, near the end of Make Way for Tomorrow, is that people who are married and have had the immeasurable luck to have been married for many years and have been happy, will take more from this film than those who haven't. This doesn't mean that it's not for anyone - everyone, really - looking for a moving story of life in all of its simplicity and at the same time aching and bittersweet complexity, but the couple at the center of this story, Barkley and Lucy, are apart for two-thirds of this story and find one another again after months apart, and they couldn't be happier. It's something that lasts, despite everything. Actually, *because* of everything, that their happiness together can weather whatever comes, and they are, in their simple presence in the lives of others, something to behold.Maybe they both know things will never be the same again; the wife, and mother of their five children, knows that Barkley could never take it if he knew what she plans to do, to put herself into a retirement home, and as she notes to her son this will be the one secret in her life. But they have their day and evening together, walking around New York City (which, by design at times due to the rear-screen-projection, has an abstract quality reminding me a tiny bit of Murnau's Sunrise), and have what could be called 'adventures'; with a car dealer thinking, from afar, that this elderly couple are full of dough; they stop off at the hotel they spent their honeymoon; they have cocktails and talk tongue-twisters; they go into the ballroom and dance to the big band playing which, perhaps sensing organically how different the mood is, change from something fast to something slow (it was this point, I should add readers, that I started to tear up, I can't explain why).This makes up the last third of the movie, and it may be what people remember most about the film. I think Leo McCarey knows this and directs this in a way that everything is building up to this. The story is set in the depression-era, so the socio-economic context doesn't have to be said, it's simply there and people know what's up (or down), and the Coopers have not been able to make payments (Barkley tells the children this and they act indignant that they weren't told sooner - it's clear from the father and mothers' expressions that they were too embarrassed, the generation keeping things unsaid that should be coming back around).So the parents are split between the children since none of them can house them both, and the despair sets in that grows over time: Barkley gets sick, Lucy becomes something of a nuisance (unintentionally of course) to her daughter-in-law's bridge club, and there's lies forged between grandmother Lucy and granddaughter Rhoda, and a foreign shopkeeper trying to help Barkley a little bit is met with scorn by his daughter. It's been said that this inspired Ozu with Tokyo Story, and it's easy to see why because everything is laid out simply and no one is out to be really *bad* per-say, but things get misspoken, little lies form, personality and behavior build over time and the small pressures surrounding people who do care and love for one another becomes greater.I have to wonder if this story would work in today's world, and I think it could up to a point (there's probably better programs to assist the elderly, or perhaps more distractions in other ways like TV), but the time it was made makes it very much a product of the depression, not unlike The Grapes of Wrath though that was more starkly political. If there's any politics to this it's at the familial level and subliminal; McCarey and the actors are out to express things emotionally, and everything builds up to something whether we think it will or not. His compositions also are simple and direct enough, giving us editing that gets to a reaction from Lucy or Barkley just when needed, the time to see their emotions rise or fall, listening or not listening as case may be. In its small way it's monumental, if that makes sense. While Ozu shows his influence from here, I might slightly prefer this film's take on this subject matter.But despite it being about people who are beyond my years, I kept thinking about my wife and I and what is in store for us years from now. We're living in a completely uncertain and chaotic world, and yet by the end, for all the sadness that is likely to come in some form or another, but love is what holds up people just as much as it can break them down in the most horrible circumstances. Barkley and Lucy love another, and their strength is in that. I loved this movie so much.
sharky_55
When four adult children make their yearly (though in reality it is suggested it has been much longer than that) visit to their ageing parents the ritual is a familiar one; the kisses and embraces all round, the gaily singing and cheers, the teasing that has not grown out of them from childhood. It is easy for the four of them to sit through the ordeal because they all know they will be soon back to their normal lives - the ones not burdened by the fussy parents. McCarey has zeroed into this feeling not only in the opening scenes but throughout, displaying it with an uncanny precision. When they sigh at yet another of Mother C's antics, or when they stare daggers at each other whilst George makes the polite offer to cancel their plans on her behalf, or when Cora attempts to sheepishly suggest to the doctor that a little bit of Californian sun might do the trick. The film is so powerful because of the pervasive pretense the characters arm themselves with that is so easy to see through - the final farewell is full of hopeful words and dialogue that assumes another meeting, but we all know that it may very well be their last moment together after so many years of marriage. There are two main drawbacks that hold the film back from being truly timeless and moving. The first is something that may be quite annoying to some particular viewers who are always on the lookout for cinematic realism, for an airtight script with no holes or flimsy characterisations. The film suggests that Barkley and Lucy are indeed wonderful people in their everyday lives, as seen in the final 'date' where everyone they meet is completely courteous and generous towards them - almost as if they are planted there to make the night more magical. The secondary suggestion is that under the stifling care of their children they suddenly become these insufferable, aggravating demons that are little more than mean-spirited exaggerations of the old grumpy person cliché. The humour that is created from these moments are off-putting; the way the room freezes to the repeated creaks of Lucy on the rocking chair (it is baffling how little self-awareness she can show whilst being fully aware of her burden on his son's family - or even worse, she is doing it on purpose), or the little boy antics as Barkley is examined by a doctor, resulting in a juvenile bite. The other lesser drawback is the eagerness of Stone to dissolve away early. A few scenes have their natural reactions cut off prematurely, and are not allowed to fully develop as they might have done so. But the parts that work cut true and deep. Two scene in particular may have many viewers struggling to hold back tears much like the characters within the story also do when witnessing them. They are back to back, and feature both the grandparents hundreds of miles away from each other and yet so close. The phone call rings loudly within the bridge lesson, and McMcaley has used the antics of the obnoxious shouting from Lucy to subvert our expectations. The entire room is expecting something nonsensical and overly loud; instead they are treated to a heartbreaking one-sided monologue where we can feel the depths of Lucy's heart desperately reach through the speaker. The power of the scene allows us to fill in those gaps in the dialogue because we know how deep their love is for each other. Similarly, we can imagine how Lucy has signed off the letter being read out to Barkley. Something sweet and saccharine, we can guess, but it is a master- stroke to allow its ambiguity to hang in the air and create an emotional lull. The sweetest character is Max Rubens, a rare kind and generous friend for the elderly who is so touched he calls back to his mother in the kitchen just to look at her for a little while. He just wants to make sure she is still there, he says. This film will no doubt make more than a few of its viewers do the same thing with their parents.
