Viewed in
2012
Formats
HDTV
Premise
Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn play an elderly couple who welcome their estranged daughter's family to their summer home.
Liked
Performances.
Disliked
Implausible resolutions.
Hated
On-the-nose music.
Thoughts
Overall, it held up pretty well over time.
Not surprisingly, Fonda and Hepburn owned the screen. I really enjoyed Fonda's grumpy old man routine. The supporting cast was very strong, especially Jane Fonda's fiance and his kid.
There were some strong moments, light and heavy. At times, the film had impeccable observational wit that made the elderly leads genuine and relatable. But you could also feel the weight of mortality in select tender scenes.
While there was some excellent dialog, the writing was mostly weak in terms of adaptation (from the play). Characters spouting emotional diarrhea can work on stage, but rarely on screen. Poor Jane Fonda got stuck with most of these scenes, and had to overact to get the words out of her mouth. Had this not been an issue, I might've forgiven it for the implausibly neat-and-happy ending, or the screaming symbolisms.
Another problem that bugged me enormously was the score. Every time someone would say something angry/serious, the music always kicked in with something blatantly sad. The result was multiple scenes ruined by cheese.
Two more thoughts on the performances. While I enjoyed the leads, I can't help but suspect they won their best acting awards on reputation and Oscar's occasional "old legends can still act!" swoons. Granted I haven't seen most of the other performances, but a quick look up the competition and you're looking at a murderer's row of talent, including Dudley Moore's Arthur Bach.
As for the late great Katharine Hepburn, I sadly found her tremors and wavering voice to be too distracting. Yes, it was brave of her to keep doing what she was born to do, but maybe I had too much baggage of seeing parodies/impressions, which took me out of the moment constantly. I wonder if I'll have similar issues when Michael J. Fox attempts something like this in his later years.
Film buffs should watch this out of respect for Henry Fonda and Hepburn, but On Golden Pond suffered from lack of a believable adaptation and cheesy use of dramatic music to make it truly timeless.
