The Sterile Cuckoo

Jerry Payne (Wendell Burton) is on his way to start his first year in college.  On the bus, he encounters Pookie Adams (Liza Minnelli), also entering her freshman year at a school 75 miles away.  Pookie is pushy, forthright, talky, kind of annoying.  She rants about “weirdos” the way Holden Caulfield rants about “phonies” (and she has a few words to say about phonies as well).  But she drops in unexpectedly at his school, insinuates her way into his life and they fall in love… but a bumpy road lies ahead.

It’s mere coincidence that I watched this immediately after The Road Home, another film about young romance.  At first I feared that I was in for something equally conventional… a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” romcom.  But there’s not a whole lot of “com” here, and not exactly a lot of “rom” either.  I found that I never quite knew where it was headed next.  While Zhang’s film sets up a romantic ideal, Pakula (in his directorial debut) explores the pitfalls.  Thankfully Minnelli eases out of the M.P.D.G. routine fairly early on in the picture (perhaps as a sign of growing maturity, or perhaps because she’s simply awkward around new people).  What emerges is a young woman aching to be loved and appreciated.  For the most part, it’s a wonderful performance.  Burton can’t help but pale in comparison, but he does hold his own, especially as the film progresses.  It’s really Minnelli’s show all the way, though.  The fact that her character starts out so grating and eventually becomes so heartbreakingly endearing is a testament to her talents.

In essence, it’s more about loneliness than anything else.  While there are moments of genuine affection between the two leads, a sad and lonely air hangs over the two of them.  One of the best examples of this is when they have sex for the first time, an extended scene that plays out awkwardly.  Not so awkward that it becomes farce, but awkward enough to make you cringe a little.  Each of them is trying to handle it in their own way — Jerry by taking it a little too seriously, Pookie by taking it a little too lightly.  It’s a romance where the lack of chemistry is the key.  Even when things are going well on the surface, we sense that they aren’t connecting very much.

Which makes the film’s more conventional scenes so terribly disappointing.  I’m referring mainly to several montages of the couple gallivanting around in soft focus, those hokey clichés of the time.  These wouldn’t be quite so awful if it wasn’t for the repetition of the film’s theme song, “Come Saturday Morning” by The Sandpipers.  It’s syrupy and dreadful and you hear it roughly one million times.  The Graduate gets away with this because “Scarborough Fair” is a beautiful tune.  This is just painful.  I mention music a lot in my reviews… maybe it’s my musician (and music-obsessed) background, but it makes a difference.  Without the bad song, these montages are corny enough.  With the song, they’re nigh unbearable.

Those moments aside, it’s an intriguing film that’s unusual enough to be less predictable than the norm.  This is my fourth film by Pakula, and while none of them have wowed me (even the much-beloved All the President’s Men), none have been that bad, either.  All have had something to offer.  In this case, it’s Minnelli’s impressive turn as Pookie and the poignant sadness that pervades the film.  Rating: Good (75)

IMDb