Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

JohnHowardReid The life story of a nonentity. Incredibly, Hollywood let this amateur write the script herself (something they wouldn't let even a pro like William Faulkner do) and the script is just that - amateurish. True it has something, authenticity, drive, even wit and sparkle and Mike Curtiz makes it all go by so fast for the first hour or so; but then the interest of the director seems to die with the script and, oddly enough, the disappearance of Donald Woods. Woods is a mechanical and unconvincing actor, far too old for an undergraduate, but Curtiz spikes up his scenes with elaborate camera movement (the dolly shot through the snow in the proposal scene) and effects (repetition of the record scratching out "Rock-a-Bye Baby") - maybe he felt Woods needed help. He sure did! But when Carson makes his belated entrance, Curtiz is content to let the camera run for long takes on such incredibly boring material as Jack's simulation of a vacuum cleaner salesman.After this low point, the script even starts to repeat some of the sharp one-liners from the first half of the film. It all ends, inconclusively and somewhat downbeat, in a railroad station as the camera dollies away from Russell and Carson through the scurrying crowds (we suspect that is Harry Hayden's voice on the loudspeaker) to The End title. Mind you, the film doesn't lack production values. A fortune has been poured into it. It has sets and atmosphere, good acting (the principals are their usual selves, but the script also has parts for a goodly parade of character actors including Alan Hale (one scene only) and some believable kids, but most of all an original Steiner score consisting mostly of generously and richly repeated excerpts from By The Light of the Silvery Moon and Bulldog Bulldog. Also We're in the Money, Oh You Beautiful Doll, It Had to be You. Oddly enough, it's the downbeat, very ordinarily directed scenes that stay in the memory, like the Pierson's losing their shirts because of a glut of roses. Fortunately, Walker's moody black-and-white photography overcomes and dampens Miss Russell's relentlessly jolly, perky performance (about which even Donald Woods justifiably complains).

Sharclon8 Rosalind Russell was just right for this movie. Bette was a great actress, but I cannot imagine her as Auntie Mame. Same with the heroin of Roughly Speaking. Russell played it just right, with a touch of laughter and a touch of pathos. It is about a woman who lives through: Divorce, polio, the Depression, one monetary failure after another, and finally seeing her sons off to fight in WWII. However, you see that it makes her family stronger, they learn to fight thru their problems and come out better for it. It is this movie that made me fall in love with Jack Carson. Jack Carson never really made it as a top, top star. In fact in most of his movies he played a buffoon or a jerk. But in Rougly Speaking he plays the kind of man most women wish we were married to. It is my opinion that he pretty much played himself. I recommend it: It comes on TCM regularly, if you have not seen it you are in for a real treat. Watch out for Roughly Speaking you will love it.

krdement Long after this movie's release, the term "Slice of Life" was coined to describe films such as this. I dislike labels, and I especially tend to dislike modern films for which this term was coined. However, it seems like an apt label for this movie which I paradoxically love. (This comment provides as much insight into film history as it does into my own character.) I admit to being a sentimentalist. Consequently Slice of Life films from the thirties to the late forties usually appeal to me far more than later films. A lot of Slice of Life movies since the late forties seem to me to be rather pointless, rather tragic - or worse - both! Like any art form, films express the ethos of the culture in which they are made. I sometimes lament the passing of the society that produced Slice of Life films from the thirties to the late forties...Roughly Speaking is a film that is full of tragic events, but none seem pointless or even tragic. In that sense it is moralistic. As their dialog during the film's fadeout clearly indicates, Rosalind Russell and Jack Carson seem made for each other in their twin indomitable spirits. That spirit imbues this entire film with optimism. If the film seems at times to be overly sentimental (even maudlin to some), I think it is because today most people think of that kind of optimism, itself, as overly sentimental. Raised by parents who experienced the Great Depression and WWII, I can imagine a time when such optimism was not deemed overly sentimental or unbelievable. This film epitomizes that time and those people, and it speaks to my heart and soul. It inspires me and makes me yearn today for such a milieu, in a retrospective way that was not possible for audiences at the time of the film's release. So, for me this movie has grown in stature and improved with age.Russell is one of those actresses who is capable of delivering a performance that evokes laughter and yet tugs at your heartstrings. Carson is not usually seen in roles that offer him the opportunity to portray such nuanced characters. Here he is, and he shines. He was one of the era's great "second bananas." When I see him in a film such as this or Mildred Pierce, I regret that he wasn't given more meaty, starring roles. In this movie Russell is the strength and Carson is the vision - they are a great team, and I enjoyed seeing them grow old together.The ending does come rather abruptly. Yet for those who lived through WWII, there is enough foreshadowing for the rest of the story to be imagined in a general sense. Hardly any family that sent as many sons to the war was blessed to see them all return home. This family had seen plenty of hardship, and would, no doubt, see more. But it would overcome...This doesn't seem overly sentimental to me - just optimistic.

Edouardo Having lived throughout the depression and the Presidency of F D R, I was pleasantly surprised when I happened upon Roughly Speaking on T C M last week. Somehow,in all these years of movie going and viewing,I never had a clue about this moving film.The author expertly weaves into the plot glimpses of those bygone days.. The early airplanes,the the struggle to ride out the lean times. The staid mother's daughter having fought the same crippling disease as had the President,the stock market crash the early war years. Her heart wrenching scene watching all three sons go off to war.Although the movie depicted the triumph over adversity women of the thirties/forties achieved, the young women of today are the daughters and grand daughters of the multi taskers of my mother's dayI wholeheartedly recommend this movie to all American women. Edouarto.