Mark Carpenter

Not sure what would possess someone to give this a 1-star rating, unless they're a fundamentalist or a conservative prig of some kind who can't imagine a young man falling in love with a much older woman -- though the reverse seems to happen all the time and older men fall in love with much younger women. This is a *wonderfully* weird movie. It was supposed to be a 20 minute Master's thesis in film, and took on a life of its own. Harold is absolutely death-obsessed. His mother sees Harold as merely an extension of her own personality. Maude, who is a concentration camp survivor, shows Harold the joy of living deeply. It is at once profound, dark, and terribly, terribly funny. For my money, it's one of the 10 or 15 best movies ever made. (I found the two bad reviews, and lo and behold -- I was right!)

For my money, this is the greatest movie ever made. That said: it's the emotional equivalent of going to down to the beach in Mexico City, Florida, tethering oneself to a lifeguard's chair, and watching the eye of Hurricane Michael come ashore. There is a serious problem in George and Martha's marriage which is tearing their relationship apart. Nick and Honey make the very tragic mistake of coming over to George and Martha's after a party at Martha's father's house (he is the president of a small, Northeastern university). The entire movie occurs over a period of maybe five hours: at the end, Nick and Honey's marriage is in tatters, and George and Martha have finally lanced the boil in their marriage which has been poisoning them. What George and Martha do to each other emotionally -- aided and abetted by "stud" Nick and his mousey wife Honey -- will curl your hair. Some people saw the wisdom of traveling 100 miles inland during Hurricane Michael, rather than see their houses blown down. Use that metaphor as needed: this movie isn't for everyone. At the very end of the movie is a scene of redemption between George and Martha, which to this day makes me cry every time I see it. I would love to have seen a sequel to this movie (as if a sequel were even possible!) exploring what happened to Nick and Honey after that evening.