PRINCE OF TIDES
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
THE PRINCE OF TIDES is a film directed by Barbra Streisand, based on a novel by Pat Conroy. It stars Nick Nolte, Streisand, Blythe Danner, Kate Nelligan, and Jason Gould. Rated R for violence and sexual situations.
THE PRINCE OF TIDES is the fourth Pat Conroy novel to be translated into film: CONRACK (1974), THE GREAT SANTINI (1979), and THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE (1983). None of the previous efforts have satisfied Conroy's fans for various reasons. News that La Streisand had acquired rights to the novel for her latest vehicle was probably not greeted with universal rejoicing. Streisand's efforts at auteur have resulted in stylized histrionics and overweening ego in the past.
Much to my relief and surprise, Streisand has created a good movie, maybe not a great movie, but one that is eminently watchable. She steps back and lets Nick Nolte carry the film, although it is true that she has made her role as New York psychiatrist Susan Lowenstein more prominent than it is in the novel.
Pat Conroy co-wrote the screenplay with Becky Johnson, concentrating on the New York love story. They cut out the adult character of Luke, the Prince of Tides himself, who now appears only as a juvenile in flashbacks. They cut the complicated Southern past in general as well as the poetic sense of place of the Carolina tidelands. The characters of the women are also downplayed, the mother Lila (Kate Nelligan) and the wife (Blythe Danner).
Instead, what we get is a skillful and engrossing series of flashbacks, a passionate love story, a couple of shocks, a wonderful bitch fight between Nolte's Tom Wingo and Jeroen Krabbe as Lowenstein's horrible, world-famous-violinist husband. We also get a chance to see Jason Gould, the son of Streisand and Elliot Gould; Jason turns out to be a very likeable performer, btw.
And most of all, we get an very touching performance by Nolte as Tom, the self-protecting, deeply troubled husband/son/brother. The movie is mostly about his unfolding from his foetal crouch, his blossoming into full humanity. Nolte never looked handsomer and his acting is detailed, sensitive, fearless, subtle, and moving.
It would be easy to dismiss PRINCE OF TIDES as another installment in the cycle of yuppie redemption flicks, or a pop-psych feel-good psychobabbler. I say if you give Streisand half a chance, if you can forget about YENTL and NUTS, you will be rewarded with a thoroughly satisfying entertainment, even at full ticket price.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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