Don't Dream It's Over
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Twice in a Lifetime is an unassuming anonymous movie from 1985 I remember seeing when it first came out and I was completely enraptured by its ability to be exactly what it was: a realistic and sad but somehow optimistic drama about a working-class guy celebrating his 50th birthday by leaving his wife and family for a red-headed barmaid. Upon first viewing I was floored. It wasn't necessarily the novelty of the concept: it was soap-opera territory of course. It was the way the concept was delivered, not the content. Every actor in this thing works it; you feel like you are inside somebody's family album, claustrophobically connected to their whims, wishes and hurts. Amy Madigan as the outraged daughter got most of the applause (even an Academy Award nom for Best Supporting Actress), but it is the whole gang that delivers the goods. An ensemble masterpiece. Gene Hackman is the lead: his sorry-eyed take on a working-class nobody finally getting his chance to love somebo