Stanley & Iris *** (1990, Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, Swoosie Kurtz) – Classic Movie Review 5537

Director Martin Ritt’s 1990 drama stars Robert De Niro as Stanley Cox, a hard-working diner cook who is one of 27 million Americans over the age of 17 who cannot read or write.

Jane Fonda plays Iris King, a working-class widow who is battling to feed her family and live without her husband when one day De Niro says to her: ‘Teach me to read’.

Two of the cinema’s best actors (both double Oscar winners) come together for the first time in this poignant, socially aware contemporary love story set in a picture-book New England town beset by economic woes.

Written by Harriet Frank Jnr and Irving Ravetch, it is a soft-centred, but thoughtful and charming film, impeccably well meaning and good hearted. And, if the stars with their unique personalities are too special for these humdrum, everyday sort of characters, Ritt restores your faith in romance and the power of positive thinking.

The screenplay is based on Pat Barker’s 1982 debut British novel Union Street, very considerably changed for the movie and its American setting but keeping much of its flavour. Iris is only one of several women whose lives the book features and Stanley does not appear. Barker’s book was rejected for about a decade by publishers as being too ‘bleak and depressing’ before it was successfully published. But the screen-writers carefully ensure there is nothing ‘bleak and depressing’ about the movie.

Also in the cast are Swoosie Kurtz, Martha Plimpton, Harley Cross, Jamey Sheridan, Feodor Chaliapin, Zohra Lampert and Julie Garfield.

The TV version edits out the strong language (a couple of F words).

It was the end of an era. It was noted Hollywood liberal Ritt’s final film. It was Frank Jnr and Ravetch’s final produced screenplay. And it was Fonda’s last film for 15 years, till her comeback in 2005 with Monster-in-Law.

Fonda won Best Actress Oscars for Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978). De Niro won Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather: Part II (1974) and Best Actor for Raging Bull (1980).

Vietnam veterans picketed the shoot in Waterbury, Connecticut, protesting over Fonda’s anti-war activities in the Seventies. It was also filmed in Toronto, Canada.

The stars were paid $3.5 million each, helping towards the $23 million. It grossed only $5,820,000 at the US box office, not enough to pay the stars’ salaries.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5537

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