Chapter Two (1979)

Author George Schneider meets Jennie Malone, and somehow they hit it off. And just when things are moving along, the memory of his first wife comes between them. [imdb]

Nominated for 1 Oscar:

Best Actress: Marsha Mason

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I've seen a film. That's kind of sad, but I was busy and also doing stuff for the other blog. So, I finally got around to see Chapter Two, because you might know by now I kind of love Marsha Mason, when she's good. This was the only one of her 4 Best Actress nominations I still had not seen.

In my opinion, she should at least receive an Honorary Oscar and soon, because they stole the win from her for Goodbye Girl and maybe even for Only When I Laugh. But this one is not one of her best performances, and definitely not one of her best films. She does the best she can with a strangely uninteresting role and she's definitely the highlight (and the only charming element) of Chapter Two. But not the level of an Oscar win.

The problem is in the screenplay and in the strangely motivated character James Caan gets to play. The film feels unimportant and don't believe the Golden Globes categorization: this is a drama, NOT a comedy! It was the 2nd of 3 Oscar nominated roles husband Neil Simon delivered for his wife, but it has to be the weakest writing of them all.

My rating for the film: 5/10. Marsha is good and that's about it.