At first blush, The Arrangement seems to be about a middle-aged man who's juggling two women in his life, a wife and a mistress. You know, they all have an "arrangement." But it's much more of an existential, mid-life-crisis movie. Kirk Douglas stars as ad exec Eddie Anderson who has an epiphany after wrecking his car in a New York City tunnel, leading him to reevaluate his priorities. Deborah Kerr stars as his wife, Florence, and Faye Dunaway is the iconoclastic girlfriend, Gwen.
Told from Eddie's point of view, the film moves back and forth between the present and various earlier moments in the man's life, including his childhood as the son of a Persian rug dealer (Richard Boone) and his earlier days at the ad agency, where he meets Gwen, a looker whose opinions are valued by the company's president. Eddie is, by the present day and according to him, locked into a strict course of by-the-book, humdrum listlessness. Although the movie doesn't use the specific phrase, Eddie wants to drop out of society - this during a time in real life when people were doing exactly that. (It was the late 1960s, after all.) A year prior to the release of The Arrangement, Douglas' best buddy Burt Lancaster appeared in a similar movie, called The Swimmer. That one was based on a John Cheever story; The Arrangement is based on director Elia Kazan's own best-selling novel, which was widely panned by critics. As was the movie adaptation - some thought that Douglas' performance was a little flat and superficial. I think that's nonsense. Douglas is terrific in a very meaty role. But even better than Kirk Douglas are his two leading ladies. Dunaway is unforgettable as the independent Gwen; this was about two years after her breakthrough role in Bonnie and Clyde, so it was a bit of a boon to get her on board. She knocks this role out of the park. And Kerr, who had been making movies for a couple of decades but looked every bit as lovely and elegant as an ingenue. Hers, like Dunaway's and Douglas's, is also a multilayered role.
Told from Eddie's point of view, the film moves back and forth between the present and various earlier moments in the man's life, including his childhood as the son of a Persian rug dealer (Richard Boone) and his earlier days at the ad agency, where he meets Gwen, a looker whose opinions are valued by the company's president. Eddie is, by the present day and according to him, locked into a strict course of by-the-book, humdrum listlessness. Although the movie doesn't use the specific phrase, Eddie wants to drop out of society - this during a time in real life when people were doing exactly that. (It was the late 1960s, after all.) A year prior to the release of The Arrangement, Douglas' best buddy Burt Lancaster appeared in a similar movie, called The Swimmer. That one was based on a John Cheever story; The Arrangement is based on director Elia Kazan's own best-selling novel, which was widely panned by critics. As was the movie adaptation - some thought that Douglas' performance was a little flat and superficial. I think that's nonsense. Douglas is terrific in a very meaty role. But even better than Kirk Douglas are his two leading ladies. Dunaway is unforgettable as the independent Gwen; this was about two years after her breakthrough role in Bonnie and Clyde, so it was a bit of a boon to get her on board. She knocks this role out of the park. And Kerr, who had been making movies for a couple of decades but looked every bit as lovely and elegant as an ingenue. Hers, like Dunaway's and Douglas's, is also a multilayered role.