Up Close & Personal
Up Close & Personal
PG-13 | 01 March 1996 (USA)
Up Close & Personal Trailers

Tally Atwater has a dream: to be a prime-time network newscaster. She pursues this dream with nothing but ambition, raw talent and a homemade demo tape. Warren Justice is a brilliant, hard edged, veteran newsman. He sees Tally has talent and becomes her mentor. Tally’s career takes a meteoric rise and she and Warren fall in love. The romance that results is as intense and revealing as television news itself. Yet, each breaking story, every videotaped crisis that brings them together, also threatens to drive them apart...

Reviews
Nobody-27

In trying to find a half-decent romantic film to see, I came upon this one. Never heard of the director, but seeing that both Michelle Pfeiffer Robert Redford are in it, I thought it couldn't be too bad. Boy was I wrong.I don't even know where to start from because everything sucked, but will try anyway: - The script sucked in every way imaginable. Story that moves by force, where everything happens in a poorly constructed dialogue (nothing is shown, we are told what to think) and where occasional emotional outbursts happen on cue because it's an end of an act... People fall in love, not because they look like they are in love, but because they say so. If they didn't say it I would not know it to be honest. Even when they are kissing, I didn't believe it. It was not so much the acting, but simply the story that managed to leave me entirely disinterested. Dialogues were forced, with plenty of TV network jargon and pretentious coolness to it, but with zero substance, or motivation or even meaning.Such a horrible script cannot inspire even the best of actors to perform. Not a single scene has real motivation behind it. Just out of the blue, someone will get upset or angry, or they will say they are in love, or they will show hatred for someone. But it all stinks of "I don't know why, but all the books on screen writing say I should have a conflict by this page, so..." To Robert Redford's credit, he manages to be good, all things considered. I love Michelle Pfeiffer, but could hardly watch her in this train wreck. Her good looks did nothing to help the situation. Her performance was the worst ever of all her movies I've seen (and I've seen most of them).Then there is the terrible story which is moving by force. A trailer trash (Pfeiffer) who looks nothing like trailer trash, comes to Miami to become a TV anchor. She sucks, but they hire her. She sucks some more at her work, but they promote her. Just like that. She sucks even more, and she gets an even better offer. Then she gets stuck in a jail when a riot brakes out, and she gives an uninspired report from that chaos, and gets an even better job. Robert Redford is madly in love with her, for no good reason, except that maybe he has a thing for untalented trailer trash.And then there is the awful ending which I will not disclose here as it would be spoilers, but will just say that I almost threw things at the TV screen. I guess the writer/ director noticed that film was a flat-liner so they forced an emotional ending. Emotional it was, but in the "WTF?" way.All in all, this film is a good study in "how to not make a movie". Or better yet: how not to write a film, how not to direct it, and how not to act in a leading role. Garbage all around. Pure and simple.

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smatysia

Very disappointing. I expected much more from a film that brings this much star power. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what is wrong with it. Robert Redford was the usual Robert Redford, which is good. Lots of very good actors in supporting roles, like Stockard Channing, Kate Nelligan, Joe Mantegna, Miguel Sandoval, and Noble Willingham. Michelle Pfeiffer just never rang true in her role. And I am a big fan of hers, and think that she is a phenomenal actress. I just never could believe in her in this one. I suppose that the writing must be at fault somehow, although I cannot say exactly how, But by the middle of the film I found it boring.

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haana86

Usually I like to research a movie for fun before watching it. I don't like to waste time watching a movie for 2 or 3 hours. What I learned is that this movie is based on "Jessica Savitch" who in the 1970s became the first female American anchor on television.The movie was based on the book " Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch" written by Alanna Nash.The movie is said not to be as accurate in detail and also over dramatize and exaggerate events. Also emphasizing on aspects that are debatable. So the movie might be leaning more towards fiction, then of true events. But that's debatable.I didn't give the movie a rating because after 20 minutes i couldn't bare to watch anymore. The movie had nothing to draw me in at all. Nothing to captivate me into sitting there and watching it for free.I suppose if you are the type that like to judge a movie after watching it then the best thing for you to do is watch the whole thing.

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louiself-1

...the fact that the interaction between the characters at times is very stilted. A particular scene in which Warren Justice (Robert Redford) is telling Tally Atwater (Michelle Pfeiffer) how to put a news story together is particularly telling. Their dialogue is an interaction that has a noticeable pause between each line, and it made me think that perhaps it had not been well directed.The scenes don't always seems a smooth continuance.The sub-story regarding the siege at Holbrook Prison was lengthy and took a large part of the movie. Whilst it portrayed Tally's growing talent and removal from Justice's Svengali-like influence, it, for me, broke the continuancy of the movie.But despite this, the movie really struck a chord with me. It is one of the few movies I bought on DVD that I watch repeatedly. For some enigmatic reason, I love the movie despite the obvious flaws.

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