Libby Tucker (Dinah Manoff) sets off from New York to look for her Hollywood screenwriter father Herbert Tucker (Walter Matthau). She wants to get into the movies. She's the talkative type who talks to her dead grandmother. She calls on her dad and finds movie hair stylist Steffy Blondell (Ann-Margret).
I like the character of Libby in the beginning but eventually, she stops being realistic. I don't buy her sex questioning of Herbert. If Neil Simon wants to go there, he should do it by asking about Herbert's sex life with her mother or better yet Steffy. That scene is a last straw situation where her emotional breakdown feels unearned. I am surprised at the clunky dialogue. It feels overly written. There are so many ways I want this story to go but it never really goes anywhere. The whole last act is cringeworthy with Libby's dialogue. It is big emotions built on nothingness.
I like the character of Libby in the beginning but eventually, she stops being realistic. I don't buy her sex questioning of Herbert. If Neil Simon wants to go there, he should do it by asking about Herbert's sex life with her mother or better yet Steffy. That scene is a last straw situation where her emotional breakdown feels unearned. I am surprised at the clunky dialogue. It feels overly written. There are so many ways I want this story to go but it never really goes anywhere. The whole last act is cringeworthy with Libby's dialogue. It is big emotions built on nothingness.