The Lovely Lee Grant Bogathon – Portnoy’s Complaint (1972)

This is my first of 3 reviews for the The Lovely Lee Grant Blogathon 2018 being hosted by Gill of WeegieMidget and Chris of Angelman’s Place

Tnx for letting me partake Guys!

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“Is this your idea of a love affair? Where you treat a woman as a leper?” – Mary Jane

Number of Times Seen – 1 (19 Aug 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A young man who is in love with any woman he sees tries to get a better understanding of his life.

My Take on it – This is a film that can be used as the perfect example of a great book that is terribly adapted for the screen.

As a kid, I read this book and enjoyed it quite a lot but this film comes across as being too strange for its own good and lacking anything of interest the entire time.

Richard Benjamin is completely miscast in the title role and for some reason they made to choice to have him play the character at various ages and he just isn’t able to pass as a teenager at all.

The dialogue doesn’t work here like it does in the book and the narration comes off as being too forced and any humor from the book is lost in the transfer to the screen.

The cast is pretty underwhelming throughout and even Lee Grant as the main character’s overbearing Jewish Mother comes across quite poorly.

Th story moves along at a snail’s pace and I kept wishing for it to end so much sooner than it eventually did.

I now understand why they never let Ernest Lehman direct another film after this one and let him stick to screenwriting duties for the rest of his career.

Bottom Line – Strange and terrible film that isn’t nearly as interesting as the book it is based on.  Benjamin plays the title character at various ages and its hard to find it believable as a teen and as an adult at the same time. The dialogue doesn’t flow well throughout the film and doesn’t come across as humorous like in the book. The cast is pretty underwhelming and even Grant isn’t so great as an overbearing Jewish mother. The story moves along too strangely and I wanted it to end so much sooner than it eventually did.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Ernest Lehman’s first and last attempt to direct. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (2/10)

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