Garbo Talks (1984)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writer:

Larry Grusin (written by)

Release Date:

12 October 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Sometimes you can catch a star...

Plot:

The son of a woman dying of a brain tumour tries to fulfil his mother's last wish - to meet Greta Garbo.

Plot Keywords:

Jail | Brain Tumor | Greta Garbo | Photographer | Mother Son Relationship

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe.

Cast

Anne Bancroft	...	Estelle Rolfe
Ron Silver	...	Gilbert Rolfe
Carrie Fisher	...	Lisa Rolfe
Catherine Hicks	...	Jane Mortimer
Steven Hill	...	Walter Rolfe
Howard Da Silva	...	Angelo Dokakis
Dorothy Loudon	...	Sonya Apollinar
Harvey Fierstein	...	Bernie Whitlock
Hermione Gingold	...	Elizabeth Rennick
Richard B. Shull	...	Shepard Plotkin
Michael Lombard	...	Mr. Morganelli
Ed Crowley	...	Mr. Goldhammer
Alice Spivak	...	Claire Rolfe
Maurice Sterman	...	Dr. Cohen
Antonia Rey	...	Puerto Rican Nurse

Also Known As:

Garbo Talks! (UK)

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG-13 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Fire Island, Long Island, New York, USA

Company:

United Artists

Trivia:

This is the last film of Hermione Gingold.

Goofs:

Continuity: The construction worker (Mr. Electric Tongue!) has his pop can in his right hand and a sandwich in his left. In the next shot, they are each in the other hands.

Quotes:

Estelle Rolfe: Could I see that picture of Garbo in the window?
Shopkeeper: Ha ha, it's from Grand Hotel.
Estelle Rolfe: It's from Mata Hari.
Shopkeeper: Grand Hotel, I own the shop!
Estelle Rolfe: No, it's from Mata Hari, it's the scene in the prison cell, where she has a reunion with Rosanoff, just before they take him to the firing squad to be executed. Look at the costumes, it's "Mata Hari".
Shopkeeper: That's 35 dollars.
Estelle Rolfe: This isn't rare, I've seen it before!
Shopkeeper: Then buy it before! The frame makes it higher.
Estelle Rolfe: I'll take it without the frame!
Shopkeeper: I don't sell it without the frame. That's 35 dollars!
[...]

Movie Connections:

Features Camille (1936)

Slow and predictable yawner.

A painfully protracted, maudlin and predictable drama, my twenty-fifth Sidney Lumet film, Garbo Talks, gets filed precipitously on the low quality end of my quest.

The film documents a harried young working man named Gilbert (Ron Silver), who is son to Estelle Rolle (Anne Bancroft), eccentric, feisty and above all, an obsessive fan of Greta Garbo. When Estelle becomes afflicted with a brain tumor, her son decides to go on an obsessive quest of his own: track down Greta Garbo, and bring her to his mother.

Anne Bancroft is in full-on, chew-the-scenery Auntie-Mame mode here, that kind of feisty ol' gal that film loves, where she mouths off to people, and stands up for her ideals, and ends up in jail all the time. She stands outside of the film as an obvious artificial construct, and every scene with her is yuk-yuk lame; every note striking false. The rest of the characters are equally as one-dimensional, but tremendously less-interesting. Ron Silver is flat as can be, and his attempted love triangle is as telegraphed as anything else in the film: He is dating affluent Lisa Rolfe (Carrie Fisher), but becomes smitten with oddball co-worker Jane Mortimer (Catherine Hicks), and I called every scene three scenes before they happen.

That's the other problem. One-dimensional characters can survive if they are posited in an intriguing and captivating story, but there's simply nothing here. The film's pace is glacial, resplendent with extraneous material that strengthens absolutely nothing, and when the film does begin to follow a linear plot, it's both plodding and uninteresting. There are plenty of guest stars, so to speak, including Harvey Fierstein as a gay New Yorker (imagine that) in yet another highly inessential scene.

Late in the film, it attempts to make a halfway-decent statement on the nature of idolatry and its role in our lives, but by that time, none of the characters exist as real people, and the film had bored me into submission, so it functions as a case of far-too-little, far-too-late. The film is my twenty-fifth Lumet-directed film, making him easily my most-viewed director, but outside of a couple egregious misses (A Stranger Among Us, anyone?), he hasn't plumbed the painfully uninteresting depths of Garbo Talks.

{Grade: 4.5/10 (C/C-) / #21 (of 24) of 1984 / #23 of 25 Lumet films}