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Garbo Talks on DVD (1984)

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Average rating: 52%
11122073
2.5
from 75 members
 
Starring: Anne Bancroft, Ron Silver, Carrie Fisher, Catherine Hicks, Howard Da Silva, Hermione Gingold, Steven Hill, Harvey Fierstein
Director: Sidney Lumet
Studio: ILC PRIME
Run time: 100 mins
Certificate: 15
Genres: Comedy
Languages: English
Released: 13/09/2004

Brief synopsis of Garbo Talks

Master dramatist Sidney Lumet takes a gentler, more lighthearted approach to human nature in his gentle comedy GARBO TALKS. While the film centers on the main character's obsession with the great Greta Garbo, it is Anne Bancroft as the obsessed woman herself who is the luminous heart of the film. As Estelle Rolfe, a perpetually protesting, heartbreakingly earnest and eccentric New Yorker, Bancroft is a powerhouse. Ron Silver is Gilbert (named for Garbo costar John Gilbert), Estelle's beloved adult son, living dutifully nearby, enduring marriage to a demanding wife (Carrie Fisher). The cantankerous Estelle is suddenly and tragically stopped in her tracks when she learns that she has less than six months to live. She decides that she must meet her idol, Garbo, before she dies, and Gilbert determinedly undertakes to locate the notoriously secluded actress; en route he encounters New York's rich underworld of eccentrics, leading him on a wild and seemingly fruitless chase. The all-star cast presents an endearing portrait of a city filled with individual stories and cherished common experiences; Bancroft is astounding in her earthy, captivating human portrayal of a woman in love with life while facing death.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 3 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Director Sidney Lumet's fondness for social outsiders goes back to his first film, 12 Angry Men, and the pattern continues with Garbo Talks, in which Anne Bancroft plays an affable but certifiable eccentric. The New York housewife is obsessed with the titular film star and addicted to supporting lost causes, as a result of which she is continually getting arrested. Ron Silver is suitably long-suffering as her exasperated but devoted son and Bancroft makes her character wholly credible. The result is a charming, if uneven film.

Variety

"...Sidney Lumet has accurately and affectionately rendered the N.Y. milieu of delis and Central Park....[The] cast of Broadway stage regulars has perfectly mastered New York diction..."

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

New Yorkish wry comedy which doesn't seem entirely clear of its point but is smartly acted and produced.

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsGarbo

A customer from Sussex , 24/02/2005

Great heart warming comedy & Anne Bancroft gives a terrific performance, Carrie Fisher was a bit wasted though. Another top film from top director Sidney Lumet!

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Rated - 1 starsShould have known better...

Helena Smart from Liverpool , 09/06/2005

Perhaps if i had taken more time to read about this movie i wouldn't have been so surprised at how unbelievably bad it was. It was like watching a Tuesday afternoon movie on Channel 5!

The dialogue was poor, and I found the female scripting of most of the female characters sexist.

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Rated - 3 starsDated but sweet

A customer from Surrey , 03/03/2008

Bancroft steals the show in this dated comedy drama about a New York Jewish woman's dying wish to meet Garbo. Son goes on the trail (of which more could have been made of) of the elusive movie star and comes up trumps and Garbo goes to meet the dying woman. Heart warming ending and the film passed a pleasant evening.

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 3 starsDated but sweet

A customer from Surrey , 03/03/2008

Bancroft steals the show in this dated comedy drama about a New York Jewish woman's dying wish to meet Garbo. Son goes on the trail (of which more could have been made of) of the elusive movie star and comes up trumps and Garbo goes to meet the dying woman. Heart warming ending and the film passed a pleasant evening.

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