Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, Danny Aiello, Laura San Giacomo, Gena Rowlands Directed By: Lasse Hallström Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Universal Studios Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: December 28, 2004 Running Time: 115 minutes Theatrical Release Date: January 18, 1991
Description: Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter lead an all-star cast in this critically acclaimed tale of life, love and chance. Jilted by her boyfriend, Renata (Hunter), the oldest daughter of a close-knit Italian-American family, falls in love with Sam (Dreyfuss), an abrasive and forcefully charming businessman. But neither her spirited sister (Laura San Giacomo), her down-to-earth father (Danny Aiello), or her supportive mother (Gena Rowlands) can tolerate Sam's often obnoxious intrusion into their family circle. Aggressive and overwhelmingly generous, Sam proceeds - with only the best intentions - to disrupt and nearly demolish Renata's family. Love, humor and forgiveness go once more around as the Bellas try to balance Renata's happiness with their family's survival in this funny and often touching story, directed by Lasse Hallstrom.
It was worth it Renata Bella feels lost. She has no job, no boyfriend, no plans...that is, until Sam Sharpe bursts into her life. He's loud, he's impulsive, he's passionate, and he's in love with Renata - AND her big Italian family. Will the tight-knit Bella family accept Sam with open arms, or will Sam tear them all apart? This gem of a film pairs Holly Hunter & Richard Dreyfuss, whose chemistry is just as apparent as it was in "Always". Filmed on location in Boston, MA and North Carolina (the Bella house was in Durham, NC, and the big wedding scene was in the Governor's Mansion in Raleigh, NC), the various scenes blend together seamlessly. Casting is superb as the actors give you a sense that you're peeking into the lives of an ordinary family. Before it's over, you're sure to want Danny Aiello and Gena Rowlands to be your mom & dad. A sweet love story that will make you feel like taking a chance at least once.
"Once Around" An older and very quirky love story. This one has pretty much gone unnoticed, but it's worth checking it out. If you like Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter, you will like this movie.
*A Wonderful Movie* I watched this and it really made me want to be a part of this family.A movie that shows love,happiness,and sadness.It shows that sometimes its hard for a family to stick together,but you need to.I enjoyed it.
Once Around If you come from an Italian/American family (and I do) this is a "got to see" movie. Right up there with Moon Struck, it follows the trials and tribulations of growing up in such a family. It's funny, romantic, touching and sad. I believe it's one of Holly Hunter's and Richard Dreyfuss's best. And the fabulous supporting acting of Danny Aiello, and Gina Rolands rounds it out to be one super, see over and over again movie. Pop some corn, grab a box of Kleenex and enjoy!
Yuck! A comedy that morphs into a meoldrama Perhaps "Beaches" for the family melodrama generation, this movie starts out with great promise as a screwball comedy, with Richard Dreyfuss well cast as a hyperbolic and wealthy salesman who meets lifetime failure Holly Hunter. She switches nameplates so she can sit next to him at a motivational session dinner, they meet, become entranched with each other, and the romance is on. Then she takes him home to her Boston family which doesn't like the guy. All the ingredients are there for an outstanding comedy!
After this beginning, the movies treads downhill almost immediately, turning to a bluster of really inappropriate profanity, bad direction, overacting and outright idiocy. You should hear the Georgian Hunter pretend to sound like she's from Boston! It wasn't any better for New Jersey-born Laura San Giacomo, who played Hunter's sister. Andy why in heaven's name did the producers decide the family had to be Italian...in Boston, home of a large Irish population? And then act like they are Jewish?
A lot of the accents were nonsense but, poor enunciation aside, it was the ridiculously contrived plot twists that really sunk this turkey. It's fine that the family would be put off by new uppity rich boyfriend Dreyfuss. But is it OK that the movie should turn in a melodramatic direction? About 45 minutes through what started out as a promising comedy, this turns into "Ordinary People" with more tugging of emotions, guilt and cries of the Boston family being torn apart than Carter's used to have little pills!
I was frankly sickened by the direction this film went after such a strong beginning. Here are all these great character actors gathered together and not a single one distinguished themselves in this bomb. Gena Rowlands was extremely poorly directed, giving just about nothing of which she is capable aside from a scene where she wrestles a microphone away from the boyfriend at a wake. The ending was especially callous, conventional and sickening, I thought, even though it summed up the poor direction this film went after a strong start.
The one great element of this film I never realized before -- Danny Aiello is a fabulous singer with a wonderful tenor voice (assuming he did the singing himself; the credits included a long line of singers you didn't see on screen. The movie featured a pretty good soundtrack, too. Aiello was cast against type here as a strong father figure, opposite his typical portrayal as a lowlife, gangster or mob member. Like the rest of the cast, he did some unthinkable things in his role, then made up for them in silly and conventional ways in the penultimate scene.
I thought a movie had to feature a mostly Jewish cast to become as sophomorically melodramatic as "Once Around" becomes. I think this is only for people that want a good cry during the movies. There is nothing here for anyone that wants to be entertained via comedy or intelligence. Beware the promise that this is a comedy, for it's not.
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