Divorce American Style

Divorce American Style (Bud Yorkin, 1967)

For starters I didn't find anything even remotely funny. The first 20 minutes of screaming between Dick Van Dyke and his neurotic flake of a wife Debbie Reynolds, was grating on my nerves! And remarkably all that screaming didn't tell me a damn thing about the problems in their marriage. Nor did it give me any insight into the then current trend of divorce. That's poor writing, as all we get is filler dialogue and all of it shouted too. I guess the surly house keeper with the cig butt hanging out of her mouth was suppose to be comic effect. Well how about making her an integral part of the household where she's the only one who can see the truth. Or even just do something interesting with her.

After the screaming of the first act, did the film finally find it's footing? Nope, it continues on with scenes that take forever to get to the punchline. Prime example is the tedious kids-in-the-park scene with Tom Bosley. Within in the first 15 seconds I got the joke...the kids all belong to different past marriages and everyone is divorced or remarried again and again and again! The scene must have went on for 5 minutes until we get the one forgotten kid left standing alone in the park. Oh boy, that was a long ways for a little joke.


And what the heck was the tacked on hypnosis lounge act scene about? And could that scene be milked any more or be any more inane? Talk about lazy writing. You know a movie is bad when Lee Grant is the best thing in it