One needs to recognize all the problems and burdens ensued by the cast and crew of Peter Chelsom's Town & Country and evoke some kind of sympathy to the final product. What began as a medium-budget comedy drama turned into a costly and inconsistent financial failure that financially damaged a studio and plunged a great deal of actors into obscurity following its release. Town & Country began as a film that was due to be a fairly quick shoot during the summer of 1998 for a release in the middle of the 1999 year. Between actor Warren Beatty's demand for many takes of each scene he was in and unsatisfied reactions to screenwriter Michael Laughlin's original ending to the film, Town & Country saw itself being developed, or more or less made up, as it went along, with production frequently stalling due to an incomplete script. When a majority of the cast had to attend to prior commitments, being that the film's shoot went well beyond schedule, the full cast couldn't be reunited for a full year, leaving a great deal of time and shelf-wear to accumulate on the film. Following various reshoots in 2000, and a rewrite of more than half the script by Graduate screenwriter Buck Henry, Town & Country finally saw itself released in theaters to record low numbers. It wound up losing over $100 million, combining a production cost that ballooned past any and all predictions and eventual marketing and distribution rights.The film remains a curious piece of history for its checkered production history, along with being the last time Warren Beatty was seen in a film. The final product is a lot more watchable than one would expect, moving with a great deal of energy and having a slew of great performers to halfway mask the shoddy material. However, Town & Country shamelessly bears the fact that its production was a mess from the get-go, appearing very disjointed, especially after about the hour mark, when the film takes one baffling turn after another. On top of everything else, the film finds itself uncertain of when and how to be funny, with certain scenarios sneaking by with no payoff, some with minimal payoff in the way of verbal banter, and others desperately trying to obtain a laugh with slapstick.We focus on Porter Stoddard (Warren Beatty), a New York architect living in a lavish home in the Hamptons, married to Ellie (Diane Keaton), a successful interior designer, for twenty-five years. One day, their good friend Mona (Goldie Hawn) informs them that she wants a divorce from her antique-shopowner husband Griffin (Garry Shandling), Porter's best friend, after catching him taking what appeared to be a redheaded woman to a motel. However, the redhead in question is a cross-dressing male, to no ones knowledge but Griffin. Furthermore, this causes a certain restlessness in Porter that he decides to act on, engaging in an affair with a beautiful young cellist named Alex (Nastassja Kinski). When Ellie discovers Porter is cheating, she is beside herself, leaving both him and Griffin to venture out to Porter's vacation home in Sun Valley for a brief retreat, resulting in predictable hijinks and locale craziness.Town & Country forgoes any kind of presumed sociological investigation as to why and how men cheat versus the reasons and methods women use to cheat in favor of rather unremarkable comedy. Despite bearing a cast of proved greats, the film wades in the water most of the time, cycling through a random array of jokes, some the driest of dry wit, others the dumbest of dumb slapstick, in hopes to obtain some kind of reaction out of the audience. This glaring inconsistency is only furthered when the film takes a turn for the inane in its third act, becoming more about situational comedy and sitcom-style gags that it feels more like a scrapped pilot for a Fox program than a feature-length film.At first, Town & Country wants to play a bit more dignified, almost seeming like a quaint, British comedy of manners. However, it rapidly descends into the worst kind of American comedy, which involves a maximum number of allegedly funny antics but a frighteningly minimal number of actual laughs. What winds up being more surprising is that despite all of its narrative issues, this film is never contemptible or even downright bad. It's sloppy and wears its problems like a messy child, but it moves with a swift amount of zeal and disposable energy. Beatty and Shandling manage to cook up something in the way of amiable chemistry at times, and Keaton finds herself in a role that, despite shortchanging her character's opinions and emotions, seems to catch her in a lively, fun mood.To see a film like this bear the hefty pricetag it does and the mainstream release it mustered is nothing but a surprise, even fourteen years later. This is not the kind of film that's likely to end up on the biggest box office bombs ever list, but more like a medium budget comedy drama that scored mediocre numbers upon release and went on to be forgettable cable fare. Town & Country bears a lot more notable features than many films of its kind, and despite them being mostly for the wrong reasons, there's an amiable quality to this film I can't shake; it's the reason my review is about two or three stars higher than it probably should be.Starring: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Garry Shandling, Goldie Hawn, Nastassja Kinski, Andie MacDowell, Jenna Elfman, and Charlton Heston. Directed by: Peter Cheslom.

Just a terrible mess of a movie that has only the most tenacious plot line running through it. Stories are picked up and dropped willy nilly adding up to pretty much nothing. This notorious flop reportedly cost many, many millions of dollars but they certainly don't show on screen. Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn try to do something with their parts although they are ill served by the script. Everybody else goes down with the ship, poor Charlton Heston and Marian Seldes are made ridiculous in yet another totally needless subplot. A perfect example of a director and studio lucky enough to gather a great group of talent and then squander them totally.

I remembered seeing the advertisement for this movie at my local theater when it came out. But I was unaware of the nightmare it was to film it & release it; all I did know was that it was in & out of the theater faster than COOL AS ICE. I had no idea this movie even existed until I read James Robert Parish's book FIASCO, which has a chapter on the making of TOWN & COUNTRY...and which, rest assured, is more funny & believable than what shows up on the screen.After searching relatively high & low to find this movie (it was released on DVD, but logically, stores do not exactly keep a copy on hand), I watched it knowing about its history & that chances are, I would likely want to throw things at the screen. I am glad to say I made it through the first viewing alive, but will start by saying that no, this movie is not a winner in the slightest. Yet is it an all-around creative bomb? Not so fast.Starting to film without a complete script was the oldest mistake in the book & they made it. Yet while it may have been a patchwork effort without much rhyme or reason, some lines were funny & rather inspired (most of them coming from Garry Shandling, who almost walks away with the movie, such as it is). Maybe having mature, veteran actors mouth some of the more scatological dialogue (as if this was supposed to be a senior's version of American PIE) was not wise, but that is often funny to watch in itself. Diane Keaton's line near the end, "Is there any women in this room you haven't slept with?", could easily be what audiences have been wondering for years. The only thing the script missed was continuity & structure, and all that showed on the screen, resulting in a film that looked & acted choppy, with many characters played by big names being reduced to glorified cameos, making you wonder if there is a lot left on the cutting room floor (but we cannot blame the editor for all that, seeing as how they did not have much to work with). The producers should have been well aware that working with Warren Beatty, a famously noncommittal perfectionist, was not going to be clear sailing. Part of (if not all) the script problems can be laid at his door, since he kept insisting on changes to the dialogue, taking up time & (most obviously) money. And of course, Warren was in his early 60s when he made this movie, playing the same old Casanova he always did. Audiences, most especially the young people who make up a large part of who goes to the movies, are not going to buy that anymore, or are unwilling to try. The studio should have saw this in the beginning & realized the chances of a box office success were slim to none, and thus rein in the budget before it went haywire.After reading Parish's book & seeing just how things went bad with TOWN & COUNTRY, I rather think a movie about the making of a movie like TOWN & COUNTRY would have been better (and with all the same actors). What went on behind the scenes was funny & screwball in itself, and most of all, it was not even scripted at all. There was potential for a movie like TOWN & COUNTRY, but if a script had been agreed on before the cameras started rolling, then the financial fallout would not have been so large. As it remains now, it is one of the biggest box-office duds in Hollywood history, and the chances of it ever turning a profit are almost nonexistent (just think about inflation).Final thoughts: For what it was worth, the actors gave it their best shot with this movie, never once placing tongue firmly in cheek with their parts (though, by all accounts, that would have improved things). I am not sure if anyone of them knew they were making something special.A good portion of the script was actually funny, but whenever it tried to get serious & make some kind of statement about infidelity & morality, it went downhill from there. Even the much-bandied-about ending is so artificial & predictable, you can see it coming from a mile away. More of a cop-out & a feeling of "Let's just finish this thing already!" Most of the people involved in making this movie have survived professionally, but only time will tell how Warren Beatty fares (that is, if he makes another movie again). Hopefully, the TOWN & COUNTRY incident awoke him to the fact he needs to finally revise (or abandon altogether) his stock character if he ever wants to work regularly & be taken seriously again.

It seems that the people behind this drudge of movie took all their cues from Woody Allen's movies during the 1990s. What I mean is, "Town & Country" is about a bunch of rich New Yorkers cheating on each other. I'm sure that everyone involved in it must be embarrassed beyond redemption for having gotten involved in it (and I don't just mean because of its abysmal performance at the box office). The only good character is Charlton Heston, basically spoofing himself. And how could a great screenwriter like Buck Henry have written this? He should have known MUCH better, given that he wrote "The Graduate".All in all, terrible. Fortunately, the cast members have all done good work since. At least I think that they all have.