Author! Author! (1982/DVD-Video)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

After doing several broad comedies, the gentleman journeyman director Arthur Hiller decided to take on a family comedy with a difference in Author! Author! (1982) where Pacino plays a loving father whose marriage to his wife Gloria (Tuesday Weld) is going down the drain.  This leaves him dealing with that, the children he loves and wants to support, a new play he needs to keep working on and a new woman (Dyan Cannon) he is interested in.  It is much to juggle for a man who is already easily strung out.

 

I was never a big fan of this film and do not believe it has held up all that well except as a commercial concession by Pacino that helped to hurt his career in the short term.  Scarface was next and though he would still take the risks, this just seems flatter than it was even intended to be.  The screenplay by Israel Horovitz is smart and ambitious, but this ultimately is a film that feels muted, though worth a look.  Alan King also stars.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 was shot by Victor J. Kemper and the work here is not bad, but looks dated both in the style of the time captured and softness of this transfer.  It is meant to be a more commercial film, so it looks more commercial.  Color is not bad, while depth and detail can be an issue.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is available in stereo and mono, with the difference being a matter of preference.  Dave Grusin did the score and it fits, but fells like some of his TV Situation Comedy work.  Extras include two original trailers for other Pacino DVDs and two for this one, one of which is a TV preview.

 

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo