Martin Sheen (who looks so young!) returns home after three years in the Army, and he finds that nothing has changed between his father, (Jack Albertson) and mother (Patricia Neal), that they are just as at odds and unhappy as before he left. The rest of the film is a portrait of how they try and find common ground, with the prospects of doing so looking mighty bleak.
Spending time with a family in emotional bankruptcy isn't easy. Like A Long Day's Journey Into Night, seeing anguish, infighting, and turmoil bubbling from the surface into an open honesty that just encourages further distance between members of a family can be quite wearying and exhausting. But really great performances come from such naked and raw truth.
Albertson won the Oscar, but Neal had the misfortune of being nominated opposite the powerhouse performance of Hepburn's for The Lion in Winter so such a luxury for what is a magnificent piece of acting (and the knowledge of what she went through not long before this with the strokes, coma, and surgery just adds gravitas to the performance). Sheen has plenty of moments to bare his own soul, but doing so in a manner using clever wit, and "performance" (he uses characterization and music from pop culture existing around (and after) World War II), trying to keep the peace and harmony that just doesn't exist.
Trip to the summer house (much a topic of conversation in how it is viewed as a bone of contention), a night on the town, the purchase of roses; there are chapters that feed to the overall conclusion. Sheen's "illnesses" as a child (anxiety the cost of his parents' inability to communicate without anger and strife), his going away to war (Albertson didn't, as a result of "having a family he needed to support", and his regrets or realization that perhaps as a returning war hero he'd receive some possible respect or accolades), and returning "without a scratch". Then there is "who will Sheen spend time with" towards the beginning, as he must endure the decision to trip with pop to the summer house or go with mom to grandmas. Then mother always going to grandmas to see the "crippled cousin" conversation results in the silent treatment and Sheen feeling guilty.
This is the kind of film where bitterness is like an open gushing wound and the tide of all that built up animosity that hasn't already flooded ashore comes rushing in. There are some rather intense scenes of Albertson getting awfully hostile with Sheen although the son tries to keep his father satisfied, willing to even go to church despite the fact that he isn't Catholic just so his father can show him off in the uniform. The arguments about "taking sides" and the blunt force of how they all truly feel. It culminates in Neal taking a day to herself, the happiest she's ever been, returning home to learn that Sheen is finally deciding to leave home. A long scene has Sheen trying to tell his father of a past trauma involving Neal, while Albertson is concerned with where she's at. Albertson's character is so consumed, it seems, with his own affairs that others' cares mean less, and are less significant. That is why Neal is so vacant of joy. Sheen trying to maintain any semblance of calm in this household is a job.
Yep, The Subject Was Roses isn't a visit to Happyland. It is well-acted and very theatrical in its presentation. You can tell this was meant for the stage. But Neal's work here is a phenomenal triumph considering what she rebounded from.
Spending time with a family in emotional bankruptcy isn't easy. Like A Long Day's Journey Into Night, seeing anguish, infighting, and turmoil bubbling from the surface into an open honesty that just encourages further distance between members of a family can be quite wearying and exhausting. But really great performances come from such naked and raw truth.
Albertson won the Oscar, but Neal had the misfortune of being nominated opposite the powerhouse performance of Hepburn's for The Lion in Winter so such a luxury for what is a magnificent piece of acting (and the knowledge of what she went through not long before this with the strokes, coma, and surgery just adds gravitas to the performance). Sheen has plenty of moments to bare his own soul, but doing so in a manner using clever wit, and "performance" (he uses characterization and music from pop culture existing around (and after) World War II), trying to keep the peace and harmony that just doesn't exist.
Trip to the summer house (much a topic of conversation in how it is viewed as a bone of contention), a night on the town, the purchase of roses; there are chapters that feed to the overall conclusion. Sheen's "illnesses" as a child (anxiety the cost of his parents' inability to communicate without anger and strife), his going away to war (Albertson didn't, as a result of "having a family he needed to support", and his regrets or realization that perhaps as a returning war hero he'd receive some possible respect or accolades), and returning "without a scratch". Then there is "who will Sheen spend time with" towards the beginning, as he must endure the decision to trip with pop to the summer house or go with mom to grandmas. Then mother always going to grandmas to see the "crippled cousin" conversation results in the silent treatment and Sheen feeling guilty.
This is the kind of film where bitterness is like an open gushing wound and the tide of all that built up animosity that hasn't already flooded ashore comes rushing in. There are some rather intense scenes of Albertson getting awfully hostile with Sheen although the son tries to keep his father satisfied, willing to even go to church despite the fact that he isn't Catholic just so his father can show him off in the uniform. The arguments about "taking sides" and the blunt force of how they all truly feel. It culminates in Neal taking a day to herself, the happiest she's ever been, returning home to learn that Sheen is finally deciding to leave home. A long scene has Sheen trying to tell his father of a past trauma involving Neal, while Albertson is concerned with where she's at. Albertson's character is so consumed, it seems, with his own affairs that others' cares mean less, and are less significant. That is why Neal is so vacant of joy. Sheen trying to maintain any semblance of calm in this household is a job.
Yep, The Subject Was Roses isn't a visit to Happyland. It is well-acted and very theatrical in its presentation. You can tell this was meant for the stage. But Neal's work here is a phenomenal triumph considering what she rebounded from.