White Palace

Drama / love story. Susan Sarandon very convincing performance. Young executive widower falls in love with a working class burger sales woman 15 years his senior. Sensitive examination of the class divide and the pain of choosing between her and his friends and family. Can he ever not find her an embarrassment in his social circle? Uncomfortable to watch but worth it.

James Spader is a 27 year old Jewish widow in St Louis (graduate, great job, plush house) and Susan Sarandon is the waitress he meets at the White Palace hamburger restaurant where she works....He later goes to a bar, bumps into Sarandon again and gets drunk and promptly gets into bed with her. She also has suffered the loss of her son...slowly Spader stops feeling sorry for himself and starts falling in love but feels too ashamed to introduce his lover, who is 15 years older than him, to his Jewish friends. Spader has played the rich guy before (see 'Pretty in Pink') and he's good at pointing out the glaring class system in the States.....There is a large continuity fail in this film (I'm a film geek); after his car headlights are smashed and remain smashed for most of the film, at the car wash at the end his lights are suddenly fixed?? Yes, I noticed but we Jewish people are sharp like that ;-)

This is overall a very good story set in St Louis, Missouri, in which a lower-class older woman and an uptight Jewish yuppie overcome social barriers to find true love.

The film is primarily flawed by the stereotypical and annoying Jewish 'types', i.e., Jason Alexander's odorously schmaltzy character, his hideously-acted 'Yente' of a wife, their obnoxiously opinionated father ('she's a person too...'), the party guests ('don't criticise other people's blowjobs'... OK, we get that Hollywood tries very hard to propagate the image of a loveable Jewish culture, but in this film it goes into overkill and you begin to wish that this element of James Spader's character was left out. Truly, it nearly ruined the film, it was so cheesy.

Nevertheless, Susan Sarandan managed almost single-handedly to salvage the entire film with her sympathetic portrayal of the middle-aged waitress who has been through hell, is herself full of fears and shadows, yet ultimately is capable of healing and teaching the Spader character.

Just a love story about how much opposite attract. Two great ators but not a great film to watch.

love james spader. check him out in boston legal