FIVE EASY PIECES

It is more than forty years since I first saw this 1970 masterpiece, directed by Bob Rafelson and starring Jack Nicholson, and all I could clearly remember was the devastatingly bleak final scene.

I was worried that it wouldn't hold up on a rewatch, because perhaps (perish the thought) it might be an overrated pretentious piece of nothing.

And indeed I'm sure some people think it is, but I loved it, partly I guess out of a feeling of nostalgia for a period when a new generation of directors and actors in US cinema was pushing the boundaries in all sorts of exciting directions.

Nicholson's character, Robert "Bobby" Eroica Dupea, is a talented pianist who is now drifting aimlessly, having abandoned his career and his middle class family, comprising father, brother (Karl Fidelio) and sister (Partitia).  When we first meet him he is working on an oil rig and has a girlfriend Rayette (the always wonderful Karen Black) who is not very cultured and who seems to bore him.

When he learns that she is pregnant he is not best pleased - in fact it is probably the cue for him to ditch her.  But before he can do that he learns that his father is gravely ill, so he feels obliged to return to his family with Rayette in tow, although he deposits her in a nearby motel before returning to the family home.

Once Bobby is with his family a relationship rapidly develops between him and Karl's fiancée Catherine.  Then to liven things up still further Rayette turns up uninvited, somewhat to Bobby's embarrassment. 

I loved the scenes between Bobby and Catherine, but our hopes that she can redeem him are dashed when she rejects him, on the grounds that she can’t love someone who doesn't love himself or indeed anything.

If all this sounds heavy I should point out there is a surprising amount of humour scattered throughout.  There is also the famous restaurant scene, where Bobby can't get the toast he wants.  This time around I found his behaviour somewhat boorish, a reflection perhaps on how I have changed in the intervening decades.  

I am pleased to report though that the final scene still works beautifully. 

RATING: ✓✓ Catch It If You Can