RipDelight
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Robert J. Maxwell
In this movie, Barbra Streisand is victimized by everyone -- her parents, the justice system, the johns she entertains -- and therefore the movie qualifies for entry into the genre of fantasy.Streisand, a hooker, has a court hearing before a judge, the always admirable James Whitmore, to decide if she's too crazy to stand trial for manslaughter one, after killing a client who was apparently about to kill her.It's her intent to be judged sane enough to stand trial and what she wants, she gets. She's defended by Richard Dreyfus and prosecuted by Robert Webber. Her parents, Maureen Stapleton and Karl Malden, attend the two-day hearing.Streisand's character was raised in a rather well-off middle-class family, but her life has been chaotic, misbehavior in high school, the collapse of a ten-year marriage, smoking (gulp) marijuana, and finally becoming a high-end prostitute. Streisand interrupts the highly ritualized hearing by banging on glass tumblers, shouting, and otherwise disrupting the tranquility of the court.Leslie Nielsen is the client who tries to kill her. She kills him instead, by stabbing him in the neck with a sharp shard of broken mirror, which is a common Hollywood convention, akin to knocking an opponent out by butting forehead, but it's still a violation of Newton's third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Anyway, there is obviously going to be a damned good reason for Streisand's unusual behavior. It's pretty generic. All the men in her life have been idiots, just as most of the men in this movie are. But the moment it was disclosed that Karl Malden was merely her stepfather, not her biological parent, we knew we were to be faced with the iron causality of childhood sexual abuse.Streisand is a curiously attractive woman with considerable acting talent and a fine singing voice. But she has an ego the size of New Guinea. To her coworkers, she is as the nutcracker is to the walnut. So it's easy to see why she would find this role suitable. She gets to tell everybody off and insult them freely. The script makes it easy for her because, aside from Whitmore's judge and Dreyfus' defense attorney, everybody from the doctor on down is a liar and a moron.The drama itself is a little sluggish but interesting in its details. Even sluggish courtroom dramas are interesting though, if they're at all well done, as this one is. Of course, Streisand's character could have obviated the mishigas if she had just taken the stand and told the truth right off the bat, but if she'd done that there would have been no movie. It would have been like Hamlet killing Claudius at the beginning, or the Indians shooting the horses instead of trying to pick off the stagecoach passengers.
dataconflossmoor
What are the thought patterns of someone who is psychologically disturbed? As this movie portrays it, (just as many other politically astute movies have done in the past) the depiction of psychologically inappropriate behavior will appear like behavior which merely lacks a little decorum.. Comprehension of "knowing the drill" so to speak, is a charade of devising clever little euphemisms for sweeping everything under the rug!! The omnipotent ye old faithful American twenty dollar bill became the proverbial picture that speaks more than 1,000 words.. Also, it does a heinously effective job of concealing virtually everything!! This whole covert arsenal for cognitive dissonance was the convoluted perspective that the film "Nuts" presented to the movie audience!! "Nuts" portrays the mental ward, that Claudia Draper was facilitated in, as a domicile for derelicts with sexual obsessions and deliberately violent mannerisms!! When somebody tells you to "grow up" and just "act like an adult" frequently these are platitudes for telling you that you should avoid telling the truth!! Such an articulation of this poignant characteristic of human behavior, puts this film in an auspicious category all by itself!! Barbara Streisand played Claudia Draper, and her home life was relegated to a precariously comfortable arrangement.. The haunting scene encompassing a deliberation hearing with relation to a trial for a capital crime, became a stilted side show for unearthing all of Claudia Draper's domestic intricacies!! Reveille with the prevailing situation in Claudia's home life brought out a few major skeletons in the closet! The only unrealistic aspect to this movie is that no public defense attorney is going to engage in complex guessing games to vindicate his client in the manner that Richard Dreyfuss' character did!!! In evaluating the trial in this movie, it was a case of insolence and temerity trying to run roughshod over a vulnerable spawn of an emotionally neglected household!! Cannon fodder for the prosecution included the exploitation of Claudia's very sordid occupation!! The prosecution also pinpointed many corroborating nuances of Claudia's which wound up compounding her overall predicament!! In particular, they (The prosecution and her psychiatrist) dwelled on her extremely non conventional actions!! The indelible impact a tragedy will have on an innocent teenager can definitely devastate her!! Depraved sexual fixations which are motivated by relentless testosterone driven theatrics became a perpetual culprit for violence and lewd debauchery in this movie!!! Orchestrating a cerebral quagmire as a subterfuge for the non-egalitarian justification of your basic carnal desires translated to the step father's self serving interests!! These interests manifested themselves as a gargantuan debacle which became an egregious societal burden!! What that means is that thousands and thousands of tax dollars were squandered on the burden of proof for coping with the end result of some lecherous curmudgeon's obstinate recreational activities!! These activities delved into the lustfully demented aspects of the taboo!! Circumstantial evidence seemed to habitually solicit more social acceptability than did exculpatory facts!! This was the summon substance of Claudia Draper's dilemma!! To say that Claudia Draper suffered from cerebral inhibitions, and a lethal taciturnity, would be a masterpiece of understatement!! If everything were just a case of black or white, whereby a professional psychiatric evaluation becomes the final decree, Claudia Draper would have been dead in the water from the offset!!This movie has an amazing amount of top notch acting talent!! It stars, Barbara Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, James Whitmore, Eli Wallach, Lesile Nielson, Karl Malden and Maureen Stapleton!! The intensity of emotions and agitated responses in this movie was utterly spellbinding!! By 1987, it was time to bring out a film which was intellectually riveting!! The happy go lucky disposition of the 1980's was fine, however, on occasion, a film should elaborate on real life instances of trauma, regardless of the way the wind is blowing in the American Cinema's mindset during a given era!! I found this film to be excellent with regards to it's portrayal of mental disillusionment!! When someone is barraged with questions, there is nothing wrong with deluging the curious party with a bunch of candid answers!! This is my basic interpretation of the film "Nuts". My assessment of "Nuts" is that it is: AN ABSOLUTELY MARVELOUS MOVIE!!!!
michaelhasenstab
This film is one of those old-fashioned, court room dramas that unfolds a mystery about the protagonist (Claudia Draper), played by Streisand. She is an expensive call girl who comes from a wealthy family. Why is she a prostitute? She kills a "john." Why did she do this? Is she nuts? Can she stand trial? Is she capable? What is with her family anyway? It's a well written, Freudian drama with acting that is solid all the way through. If you have no problems believing, as some narrow minded folks do, that this actress is pretty or sexy enough to be paid for sex, then you just might get hooked into this picture. It's not terribly shocking--no one is eaten alive and there is no gore or hard core sex going on. If you're looking for that, it won't happen. Streisand and Richard Dreyfuss, who plays her court appointed attorney, play well off each other. Karl Malden and Maureen Stapleton are just plain good. I watch it every year and I enjoy it immensely.
moonspinner55
Manhattan call-girl has to prove her sanity in a courtroom hearing after she has killed a client; she says it was in self-defense, but now her mental state and her lifestyle--as well as her tumultuous childhood--are on trial. "Nuts" presents a dilemma for director Martin Ritt and his screenwriters, Tom Topor, Darryl Ponicsan and Alvin Sargent, working from Topor's play: how do you get an audience to sympathize with the heroine of your story, one who has a short fuse, a nasty disposition, and who rubs everybody else the wrong way? It probably wasn't possible, and protagonist Claudia Draper is an exasperating, meddling, infernal creation. Barbra Streisand obviously saw in the material a meaty dramatic role for herself as an actress and, although perhaps a bit too old for the part of Claudia Draper, she tackles the project with relish. Unfortunately, "Nuts" opens with such a flurry of manic energy that it's predictable the film won't be able to sustain or match that intensity for the rest of its length. Once the introductions are out of the way, the film settles into a talky, stagy formula, one complete with showboating solo moments for Streisand and most of her co-stars (with the exception of Richard Dreyfuss as her legal representative, who makes a bigger impact simply by keeping a lower profile). Streisand's abrasive Claudia is really the whole picture, and Barbra chews up so much scenery in the course of two hours I'd be surprised if she didn't hit the gym afterward. Still, a piece like this needs an electric personality in the lead if it's going to work at all, and Streisand does more for the role than a less-dynamic actress might have. Not a great picture by any means, and with an amusing/puzzling final shot of Streisand at the end, but one that is well-produced, interestingly edited and full of top talent and style. **1/2 from ****
