dminkster The problem comes from the fact that I (and my wife) found it hard to watch Lang's performance and feel much, if any sympathy for her. Yeah, sure, she's bi-polar, but so what? She needs to be taking her meds, although being married to enabler Tommy Lee, who has seemingly never asked himself (or her). 'what the heck are you doin' and why?' has added to the problem. The film takes it's time setting up the crisis, then solves it easily and quickly. But, as they all ride off into the sunset, laughing, you have to ask yourself, 'when is this going to happen again?' And, when it does, what will happen then? No reason to suspect things will be any better, or any different. Which is also fine, but then, why are they laughing? Sorry, for me, it simply doesn't generate any sympathy or empathy for the lead characters. It may be good acting, but the director needed to take a hard look at the lack of empathy created and do something about it.

ccthemovieman-1 This film had some really interesting scenes that made me watch the movie twice but that was enough. The story overall is a bit too messy.Jessica Lange was a hoot as the manic-depressive flirtatious wife of Army Major "Hank Marshall." Boy, poor Hank had his hands full with "Carly" as his wife. Lange plays the role a little over-the-top but that's what makes her interesting here. It turns out to be a military soap opera film, if there is such a thing.The soap angle came in not just between the Major trying to control his out-of- control wife, but the couple's poor daughters who had to live with this under their roof. Amy Klempp and Amy Locane played the sympathetic daughters.There's more to the story, such as incidental things like nuclear bomb testing but, believe-it-or-not, that takes a back seat to Jones and Lange's marital woes. Frankly. when I write this, over 10 years after seeing the film, I wonder why I bothered watching this twice. I was a big fan of Jones, and maybe that was it, plus Lange looked good back then playing the blonde bombshell. This is one of the last films in which she looked this good as her "Tootsie" days were starting to wan.

lastliberal There is an old Calypso ditty that states "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never take a pretty woman to be your wife." If you want to have a career in the Army, you might also want to avoid bi-polar women.Tommy Lee Jones (The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) was an Army Major, a nuclear engineer working on atomic tests, that had a gorgeous wife who was a little crazy. Jessica Lange (Broken Flowers) was awesome as his wife and won every award that year for her performance. She deserved every win in a movie that was a testament to love. No matter how crazy, Major Marshall (Jones) was there for her because of his love. And her love brought her out of her disorder long enough to save him.This was director Tony Richardson's last film and he made it a winner all the way.

ahearn02 Lange's convincing portrayal of the neurotic, alcoholic wife, and Tommy Lee's loving, patient coping-with (and covering for) her erraticisms make for a memorable first half. Unfortunately, the whole thing crashes down into preposterous infantile fantasy, with the woman unaccountable metamorphosing into a combination of Nancy Drew and all three of Charlie's Angels to save her husband from durance vile (Beethoven did it better in Fidelio)... As a guy, I'm not supposed to like "relationship" movies, but this one would have been infinitely better left as exactly that, with the comic-book adventure left out.