Breaking Up Is Hard to Do Tickets

Breaking Up is Hard To Do
Breaking up Is Hard to do is a really insightful and lesson learned drama about divorce. The light and dark, happy and sad are well-characterized in this well-acted made for-TV-Soaper. Its nothing you have not seen before, but it has done more artfully than most. David Ogden Stiers is memorable in his role.

This drama is of 150 minutes. It was produced by Allen S. Epstein, Jim Green. This drama covers the aspects of bachelor, divorce, friendship, man and single. Originally it was made for TV Color and broadcast on ABC in two parts - one on Wed., Sep. 5, 1979 in USA and one on Friday, Sep. 7, 1979.

The company which has produced this drama is Columbia Pictures Television. Distributors for this drama involve Vidmark Entertainment Ted Bessell, Jeff Conaway, Robert Conrad, Billy Crystal, Tony Musante, David Ogden Stiers, Bonnie Franklin, Susan Sullivan, Jim Antonio, Janette Lane Bradbury and Molly Cheek.

This film was reissued on video about ten years later to capitalize on Billy Crystals growing fame. When it arrived on home video, the picture received its first MPAA rating (R) and was edited down from its original running time of 150 minutes to 96 minutes.

This drama involved six recently divorced males who gather round a restaurant table and talk about their past lives and their recently failed marriages while trying to piece their lives back together. This drama is somewhat interesting for presenting the topic of life after a divorce from a mans point of view. Neil Sedaka sang the smash title song over the final credits.

These motley group of six buddies, finding themselves distinctly single all at the same time, decide to spend the summer at the beach house one of them is sitting for, in this two-part telefilm. This two-part four-hour film, exploring separation and divorce from the mans point of view, took its title from the Neil Sedaka-Howard Greenfield song and subsequently was edited down to a single-part three-hour movie.

Conrad, whose wife has fled him after years of mistreatment, invites each of his buddies to hang out in the sand and surf, just like the old days. However, before long, its clear that the old days were just that and now things have changed for each of the men. Bessell has ditched his wife and daughter, using his recent cancer scare as an excuse. Conaway is an aspiring talent agent who worries if he can still afford alimony once he branches out on his own.

Crystal is a recovering alcoholic who wants to make it up to his two young boys. Musante split up do to his constant cheating. Stiers wife leaves him for a younger, more nimble type of guy. The sextet frolics in the sand, argues intermittently and attempts to party as if they are all still in their 20s. Many soapy complications blend with the male histrionics they each go through as they try to examine where it all went wrong.

An attractive woman asks Oliver and Ben if she could join their company at the cafe. Her name is Mary and she has just transferred there. She comes onto Oliver so heavily that it almost completely shuts his brain down- he has never encountered a female equivalent of himself.

When Mary leaves, Oliver starts reveling in his own handsomeness. Stewart arrives and inquires about the others plans for the weekend. Then he cant help but proclaim that he and Crystal are going to Donald Chad wells beach estate- he won the draw.

Lydia has plans with Stewarts ex-friend/current-enemy Jack, but still wishes they could come. Benjamin has stomach pains and both Oliver and Stewart think he should see a doctor. Meanwhile, Regina gets a date with a woman called Conner. Stewart gets a hernia and luckily for Ben, he hits it off with Stewarts nurse Wendy. However, all the siblings have surprises coming for them and Crystal reveals a hidden talent or two.

It occasionally rings true and there are a few poignant, real moments of connection along the way, but more often than not. It is a parade of forced camaraderie, overenthusiastic recreation and, worst of all, melodramatic moments that frequently involve running up and down the beach or fisticuffs.

There is one particularly horrendous sequence in which the men acquire motorcycles, dress up like bikers because they are all connected with showbiz and then tangle with a pack of real ones.

Despite the oppressive length and the emphasis on the male side of divorce, none of the actors really gets a chance to truly break out and display what makes them tick. Conrad, a man who built a career out of showing off his body and his tightly packaged crotch - and repeats such maneuvers here very often does a good job of showing the downside of machismo pride covering up true feelings. Stiers gets a rare chance to emote dramatically and does it rather well.

Bessell is quirky in the extreme and this may separate him emotionally from some viewers. Musante fans of whom will want to note that he spends lengthy time in a lil red speedo, does a nice job and shares one really good scene with Stewart, a woman who wont play things his way. Conaway looks ridiculous most of the time and is easily outdone by Sullivan who turns up as a rich-bitch film actress.

Crystal does a fine job, but his low-key character somehow seems to get lost in the mix possibly due to his lesser-known status at the time? Most of the female cast, apart from Sullivan, Stewart and Franklin as Stiers no-nonsense love interest is nondescript and unmemorable and in some cases, badly acted. It is unusual, even now, for a film to show these issues from a male perspective, but unfortunately this is mostly a superficial examination, almost a novelty.