Men Don’t Leave **** (1990, Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Arliss Howard, Joan Cusack, Tom Mason, Chris O’Donnell, Charlie Korsmo) – Classic Movie Review 8772

Director Paul Brickman’s 1989 Men Don’t Leave stars Jessica Lange as Beth Macauley, who is having a terrible time. First her loving husband dies, then she has to sell her house, she loses her job, she is forced to move to Baltimore, her 17-year-old son Chris (Chris O’Donnell) has an affair with older woman Jody (Joan Cusack) and her 10-year-old boy Matt (Charlie Korsmo) steals videos.

Paul Brickman’s second film is a poignant, amusing, intelligent up-market soap opera, with everything hanging on the performances. Lange treads this minefield of emotions surefootedly, the boys are astoundingly mature actors, while Joan Cusack runs away with the whole thing simply by being funny all the time.

Barbara Benedek wrote the screen story, and Barbara Benedek and Paul Brickman’s screenplay is based on a 1981 French film, La Vie Continue, by Moshé Mizrahi (suggestion). Moshé Mizrahi is best remembered for Madame Rosa (1977).

It is O’Donnell’s film debut with little acting experience at 19, fighting off much competition to win the role.

Also in the cast are Kathy Bates, Tom Mason, Belita Moreno, Jim Haynie, Corey Carrier and Shannon Moffett.

Men Don’t Leave is directed by Paul Brickman, runs 115 minutes is made by The Geffen Company, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Barbara Benedek and Paul Brickman, based on the film La Vie Continue by Moshé Mizrahi (suggestion), is shot by Bruce Surtees, is produced by Jon Avnet, is scored by Thomas Newman and is designed by Barbara Ling.

It is shot in Baltimore, Maryland; Plainfield, Illinois; Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor, Illinois; and Chicago, Illinois.

O’Donnell, Bates, producer Avnet and composer Newman re-teamed the following year for Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). Bates and Korsmo also appeared in Dick Tracy (1990) that same year.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8772

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Jessica Phyllis Lange, born April 20, 1949.