Jack Nicholson plays the host of a radio talk-show program in Philadelphia who is reunited with Bruce Dern, his ne'er-do-well older brother, also a hustler and promoter for black gangsters, after Dern's been jailed in Atlantic City. Meeting Nicholson at the train station is Dern's aging mistress Ellen Burstyn, who is traveling with her comely stepdaughter. A dramatic acting exercise for the three stars is a cautious, interesting effort--but not an exciting one. Producer-director Bob Rafelson, who also originated the story with credited screenwriter Jacob Brackman, aligns all his shots with an artistically jaundiced eye but intentionally shows no heart. He and Brackman are careful to give their principal characters a fully-rounded background (we perceive that each of them has been through a hellish lot), and yet this story of family and unreachable dreams is sluggish and morose, filmed in wintry washed-out color by cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs. Some viewers are intellectually stimulated by Brackman's literate dialogue, and yet the film has been drained almost entirely of humor, so that Nicholson's nebbish (a man we might possibly connect with) merely seems a submissive malcontent, careful with his words but robotic and aloof. ** from ****
Review of The King of Marvin Gardens
