The women in Carnal Knowledge are far more interesting than the men. Candice Bergen drops out after about 30 minutes and you never see her again. She has 2 scenes that develop her character, one in a car with Jack Nicholson where she falls for his story about having a tough childhood, and another where she tells a story about a bear in a restaurant (I kid you not). The camera holds onto her in the latter in a very clinical way as if she is expressing herself for the first time and it could very well be the last once she marries one of the college lotharios trying to get her to notice them.
Anne Margret has a more substantial role and it's well written in that she is somehow not the selfish gold digger that Nicholson's character would have the audience believe. Its complex in its own way, in a way that Candice Bergen's character is not, but still both are stilted characters, one supposedly queen of the ballroom, and the other, somewhat used but still in there fighting.
Jack Nicholson is an insufferable boor which doesn't really help. Maybe with the passing of time I'm just expecting my boors to be a little more politically correct than they used to be, who knows.
I'm a fan of Virginia Woolf and Catch 22 but in this case I think Nichols doesn't get his act together much at all. The profanity is a little alarming even more so by today's standards. It comes off as out-dated, over-rated and not terribly incisive about sex and relationships as it was once thought to be.
Review of Carnal Knowledge
