This is not a film where everything works out. It's sad and disagreeable in the way it does not satisfy us.
Basically a young, very vulnerable, very unworldly girl who falls in love with a very worldly worn man who has the psychic energy of a rotten discarded orange. He was naturally drawn to her. She completely misunderstands his general makeup preferring to see him as suave and debonair. She has obviously never met anyone like him. Later on in the movie we see the kind of men in her life. Her father believes in all the simple relationships between men and women. The priest has a traditional view of her behavior and offers her very traditional advice, which she chooses not only to ignore, but chooses to run from.
Near the end, we witness the breakup of the love affair between the central characters. One of the things we learn about her father's marriage is that her mother ran away all the time just so he (her father) would pursue her (her mother). She thought the same ploy would work on her lover. That's how little she understood the world of such men.
She could not understand his reaction. He was in their relationship only as long as it was idyllic. It was a very pleasant diversion, an escape from the failures of his life. He did not want any of the problems of her love because it was too confining. He was capable of making love, but not of loving.
So it ended. He with a fading memory and she with a bit of an education.
I liked Tushingham. Anyone would. It was the Peter Finch character that made the film so barren and ugly. That doesn't mean it was a bad film. It only means it was hard to enjoy and watch and feel anything but
sad.
Basically a young, very vulnerable, very unworldly girl who falls in love with a very worldly worn man who has the psychic energy of a rotten discarded orange. He was naturally drawn to her. She completely misunderstands his general makeup preferring to see him as suave and debonair. She has obviously never met anyone like him. Later on in the movie we see the kind of men in her life. Her father believes in all the simple relationships between men and women. The priest has a traditional view of her behavior and offers her very traditional advice, which she chooses not only to ignore, but chooses to run from.
Near the end, we witness the breakup of the love affair between the central characters. One of the things we learn about her father's marriage is that her mother ran away all the time just so he (her father) would pursue her (her mother). She thought the same ploy would work on her lover. That's how little she understood the world of such men.
She could not understand his reaction. He was in their relationship only as long as it was idyllic. It was a very pleasant diversion, an escape from the failures of his life. He did not want any of the problems of her love because it was too confining. He was capable of making love, but not of loving.
So it ended. He with a fading memory and she with a bit of an education.
I liked Tushingham. Anyone would. It was the Peter Finch character that made the film so barren and ugly. That doesn't mean it was a bad film. It only means it was hard to enjoy and watch and feel anything but
sad.