Review: Robert Redford and Jane Fonda Are Neighbors With Benefits in ‘Our Souls at Night’

I so wanted to like this movie as I am of a similar age. But the initial proposal without even an attempt to gauge interest or get to know each other over a drink or a cup of coffee was just too contrived. The awkward moments could have been cause for laughter, but not a hint of humor. And then there’s Redford’s “acting” that keeps the movie humming along in first gear. Mercifully I was watching at home and inadvertently fell asleep somewhere in the third act. Woke up for the “finale”, which was a dud. These two formerly beautiful actors barely betrayed a shred of personality. Was the book as dull?

Good Grief - way too much analyzing - great movie both actors did a great job. I went with the flow and enjoyed it. PLUS! This shows how important grand parents are to grandchildren, clearly the young boys father was not engaged with him (many fall into this category these days, give them phones to occupy their time) he learned many lessons from his stay with the older generation. If you are going to analyze........there is a lesson learned here.

So disappointing, and every Kent Haruf book is magical. Fonda should never have played Addie - she is so fake looking I couldn't get into Addie at all, too sophisticated and know-it-all for that part - couldn't decide if it was Faye Dunaway or Dolly Parton or who I was watching. Wish they'd left the book alone.

I enjoyed this movie very much, and was mesmerized by the performances of both Mr. Redford and Ms. Fonda. I really did not have time to watch it...but once it started, I could not turn it off! I'm a busy attorney and so do not have a lot of time for reading "really great" novels or seeing "truly great" plays, etc...But few, if any of the criticisms, I have read here occurred to me... I just went along with the narrative--long & intimacy between older folks--which, in itself, is refreshing material. I look forward to seeing the movie AGAIN--liked it that much. My parents grew up in rural Kansas...and I loved the small town setting. GREAT performances from both leads. LOVED IT!! Wish I could find a guy just like Lewis Waters!! He's still hot.

Painful.

unfortunately i was snowed in up in idaho and forced to watch with friends. this hallmark movie was predictable, laughable and plain ridiculous. i did note every time robert redford had a scene when he was sitting or kneeling or lying down.. you never saw him change that position, because, it would take an 83 year old a little help. let's not glorify the palstic surgeons, filtered lighting, long shots, and non-existant small towns sans strip malls. i shouldn't really care, as i was with friends, but what a waste of money to make.

This is a lovely book. Some of you know little about small town life. Although I admire Redford and Fonda as actors, they are miscast for the roles. Judy Dench and Jonathan Pryce are two Brits who would've been more convincing.

Several problems with this concept. One is there is no frame of reference in the year, decade or the exact age of the characters. Can anyone believe in today's world that anyone would want to "come through the back door" to avoid embarrassment, especially as the character, as we learn later, had a torrid affair where he left his wife and daughter? The first question I would have asked the guy was "do you snore?" Can you imagine? Dumb premise to begin with, then add yet another kid to the mix and hit the fast-forward button to find out the end was just... THE END. Totally unbelievable premise from start to finish. Not surprised it landed on Netflix, probably couldn't sell it anywhere else, not even the Sundance channel!

I was just reminded by Ken Burns that Jane Fonda once thought the boys sent to Vietnam against their will were "war criminals who should be hung". Sure, she was young. Maybe she didn't know any better. but it's a pretty tough pill to swallow regardless.

Two exceptional actors in a new film! Wonderful! I wish this sentence were not in the review, though: ” The intervening decades have hardly diminished their charm or their skill..." Why would it be surprising that time passing would diminish their talent or charm? If anything, more experience and time on the planet would deepen one's skill. Ageist comments like this spring up often and are tiresome.

You're all off your rockers....everyone is watching this to see Fonda and Redford go barefoot in the park one last time. It's just nice to watch old stars do one final star-turn together. I found the film a delightful, pleasant diversion. If I wanted great art, I would have pulled out a Bergman film out of the Criterion Collection.

Fonda and Redford. Growing old in their own ways. And finding time to share another story. Am I right to assume no car chases or shoot'em ups? I'll go just to see the latest installments for two amazing actors who have dedicated themselves to the things they believe in. I know that even if the movie is not all I might want it to be, I will enjoy spending time with these two intelligent and creative spirits yet again.

So Redford is now a minimalist? How kind. There I was thinking he was just a famous stiff, a male Audrey Hepburn running the gamut of emotion from A to B. He's done some decent directing, and strutted his stuff in some famous movies alongside some famous (and much better) actors. His shortcomings were most obvious set against the talents of Klaus Maria Brandauer and Meryl Streep in "Out of Africa". Oh well. He'll always just be Redford. That's enough for some people.

My first time at NYT Very well written review and on the button, I'll be back.

'Is too cautious and cozy to be a great movie, or even a very interesting one.' That sums up this movie perfectly. While I watched the entire 'movie' , the premise was good; pace not so much.

I just picked up the book again to see how Haruf described Addie - short white hair, still shapely but a little heavy at the waist and hips, a medium sized woman. If anybody thinks that describes Jane Fonda in this movie, let me give you my ophthalmologist's phone number - he's very good.

I was so embarrassed for both of them. The movie was like watching paint dry. I hate how older people are depicted as slow and feeble. I just knew they would bring dignity and sensuality to performance. Right? Well, it never happened. I am old, NOT cold and have great sex. So there. I hated this movie and I am deeply disappointed in Both actors for their pathetic display of drop-dead boring.

Any movie today without violence is rare and worth watching, especially with stars like these.

This is a made-for-tv movie from straight out of the 1970's.

During a 2002 interview with Charlie Rose, Robert Redford explained that in l980 he initiated Sundance as a community for film people. He explained how it evolved into a context where a diversity of ideas could be worked on and show cased; and where people involved with film and theatre would have the space to learn from failure as much as success. Also being interviewed, Glenn Close spoke about the fact that Sundance, as a nurturer of diversity in films, plays a role in helping to remind people about their humanity during a time when there are many forces that leave people feeling numb and disconnected. Stanley Tucci said that to experience Sundance, especially the film labs, "It's like heaven almost, in a way, for an artist." I bring up Sundance because whether or not this particular film project, "Souls at Night" pleased viewers, to me the film is worthy of our attention because initiated by Robert Redford it is part of a body of work that has been dedicated to contributing to our understanding and experience of what it means to be human. Both Robert Redford and Jane Fonda have been working on projects of this kind, throughout their entire lives to the benefit of many people. Each may miss at times and/or in certain ways - but again and again each of these individuals has gone out on a limb to stretch their own levels of awareness and to contribute to the awareness of others.

It is a terrible thing to refuse to grow old. Growing old is part of life, part of nature. Its acceptance is a sign of maturity, of wisdom even. Some people do age gracefully and well, and that's fine. But America growing old is rejected and people are prepared to go under the knife to look young. But LOOKING Young is not the same as BEING Young. And beauty can be Young or old. It makes me sad to see intelligent people to believe that APPEARANCE is the same as BEING. And there is a PRICE to be paid in the end because if they live long enough the whole thing is bound to collapse with dreadful consequences.

Fonda and Redford are obviously both great talents and were amazingly attractive, but I cannot get past what they have done to themselves in order to try to retain their youth. It's pathetic. He's over 80, and she's 78 or 79, but their faces in the past few years look like wax masks, not humans. I'm sad for them both, and wish they had accepted their humanity and let their formerly expressive faces age like living humans.

I have a feeling Ms Fonda's charisma in this is natural. And it must be a thrill to act with someone so famous as Mr. Redford, who once jumped off a cliff into a river together with Paul Newman. Who can forget, "What do you mean you can't swim?" Maybe they can even go shopping at Bloomberg's together. Mr Redford's efforts at saving public lands from development in Utah is appreciated. Ms Fonda at onetime endowed a chair at Harvard on women choosing to study Science. Any papers on this? My own take is that women excel in this. On the former, not just the wildlands of Utah, but the "tragedy of the commons" is now upon the whole planet, especially the air and water. Perhaps their art will save the world.

I really wanted to like this film. Being an old woman myself, I was interested in how a modern film would portray a non-marital relationship between two old people, and admittedly I've had a crush on Redford for years. Fonda not so much. She's too Fonda. Never letting go of the beauty that, along with creditable acting, she parlayed into hollywood stardom. It might have been possible to make a "December-December" movie with these two, but this wasn't the one. No old woman in her late 70s/early 80s living in a scruffy Colorado one-traffic-light town looks like Fonda. Her reluctance to let go of the glamor tropes---long wavy hair (with flowers yet), figure-flattering clothing, false eyelashes---destroyed her authenticity. Even an old urban woman lets go of these things as arthritis and life as a 75+ year old takes over. The script reveals that she did not live the kind of life that called for that gold evening outfit or justified the hairstyles that only a good hairdresser could have achieved using plenty of hairpieces for body and length. I don't mean to be aggressively critical of Fonda, but jeez, why couldn't she, just this once, give us old folks some respect and allow herself to look the part, with thinning hair and amateurish hairstyles and clothing bought at the nearest Target or Kohl's?

I'll pass. The concept does not interest me at all.

I just watched this movie on Netflix -- amazing on many different levels.

I so wanted this to be better than the book, but it wasn't. Addie and Louis are plain people. Fonda and Redford are so much more physically attractive than virtually any of the other townspeople. It would be like Ken and Barbie living in the Smurf's village. Also, it seems that some important parts of the story were omitted. Our Souls at Night was voted the best book of last year at our library so I'm anxious to hear what everyone else thinks of this production.

I hope this movie encourages audience members to read all of Kent Haruf's wonderful novels of the Colorado plains. Besides "Our Souls At Night," "Plainsong" is another special one. His characters were American originals, impossible to stereotype or pigeonhole. They push us to think about what we most value in life. Haruf died way too soon. I'm sure I wasn't the only one wanting to read more of his work.

An Oscar-Winning movie pitch-perfect in tone and true. It showed this once nearly young viewer at a more mature age that one can be lonely without realizing it. A portrait of America, and reassuring in reminding some of us that it is often the small pleasures in life that are the greatest. Great fun to watch the reunion of Jane Fonda and Robert Redford, after watching them walk 'Barefoot in The Park'.

I recall the buzz in a small community outside of Colorado Springs where this was filmed a couple of years ago. It was the chance of a lifetime to see Robert Redford in their midst. I believe he also directed and/or produced this film. Good for him for continuing to produce such great, honest work. I have a still growing collection of his films, the majority of which are classics. They tell the story of my life. When he leaves us, my heart will break. And Jane... well, she is an icon as well.

In "The Chase" Redford, an escaped convict, spent most of the movie on the run. Most of his scenes were not with the main cast. Not much chemistry there due to the lack of propinquity. It was their time on the set of "Barefoot In The Park" when they fused their disparate acting styles. Fonda brings the heat and passion to a scene, she being fire to Redford's ice. Redford, par for the course, provides the cool, the detached character, an effect old Bob has mastered throughout his career. "The Electric Horseman" was simple a beautiful confection, a joy to watch. With its underlining politically-driven commentary, it commented on the rash of corporate commercialization of even this old-time rodeo cowboy. The antagonism initially between Fonda and Redford is a tease. We know the formula and where we're headed. The antagonists become pardners in crime, rebels for a good cause. Seeing Fonda and Redford together in a movie about people my age is a delight. I have grown with them, from the turbulent Sixties till now. Two good people who practiced their political activism in their individually unique ways. Fonda, ridiculed till today as Hanoi Jane, put it all on the line. I admired her then and now. Redford, true to form, played it cool, as did his longtime pal, the original cool hand Luke, Paul Newman. I miss Paul dearly. I will appreciate this marvelously romantic story for old folks as their epitaph. Enjoy these two treasures while we still can. DD Manhattan

There's something terribly decent and laconic about the Kent Haruf novel of the same name on which this movie is based. It reflects, I think, something of the life and character of this quiet, self-effacing author and the understated Midwestern small towns that he lived in. There is no prurience in the book and what a relief that is. I can't see Redford and Fonda in the main roles either. But even if miscast, what a delight to see them come together fifty years after "Barefoot in the Park."

A very astute review from Mr. Scott. The movie is, in fact, too cautious and too cozy: it mercifully eschews both sentimentality and melodrama, and yet very time a conversation or a bit of business threatens to become "dangerously" intimate, the film quickly cuts away to the next scene. Were it not for the well-matched performances of Redford and, most especially, Ms. Fonda, the movie would most likely have been insufferable.

They were fools and dupes when young and have not grown because they were attractive and acquired wealth. That should be enough. But like many miscreants showing your colors only stops when the public realizes it is the color of other peoples misery and you don't care. Go support these ignorant supporters of world misery if you must, but don't try to sell then to the world.

Just watched the trailer. Looks to be a lovely, quiet movie with humanity - like "The Lunchbox" which was a dear, and gently humorous love story. Good for Netflix getting all these people on board and starting with a good novel.

Let's be complete. Redford and Fonda were also in The Chase.

Bruce Dern also played Jane Fonda's husband in Coming Home. These wonderful actors have all been part of my life forever and I have a great deal of affection for them. For that reason alone I would like to see this movie.

The book is wonderful; so are all of Kent Haruf's novels about Holt. I will see the movie because of his writing and vision. And there is nothing wrong with Addie being played by Jane Fonda. She and Redford are treasures as actors. Forget the politics from the past and enjoy whatever the cinema can give us. At least it isn't chainsaw massacres.

I loved this book so I'm almost scared to watch the re-imagining of such a touching story for the screen. I hope I'm not disappointed.

I read the book and never in a million years envision a glamorous Jane Fonda as Addie...so much for Hollywood tarting up a fine novel.