Fred Won't Move Out

PLOT:
For fifty years married couple Fred (played by Elliott Gould) and Susan (played by Judith Roberts) have lived in the same house. Both are now at an age that makes life difficult for them and their grown children. Now Bob (played by Fred Melamed) and Carol (played by Stephanie Roth Haberle) have to make a choice, allow their parents to stay in the house they grew up in or take them into the city where they can get the help they need from a center. When this idea is brought up to Fred he lets his children know that he's not going anywhere.

ACTING:
Amazingly enough this movie had some good acting being given by the cast. I say amazingly becuase the story was one that would make even a seasoned actor find it hard to make something out of it. Which Elliott Gould and Judith Roberts are both season actors and their skills are put to the test with their characters. Fred is a grumpy old man who is set in his ways while Susan is an older woman who has mental problems due to her age and has problems with everything she does. Neither of these characters are exciting, they're really not that interesting either, but both Elliott Gould and Judith Roberts makes them into real people. This is what acting is, taking a character and making them real and believable regardless of the story. I think if there had been more to the story, like more of a point, then this would have been a better movie.

ORIGINALITY:
I might not have liked this movie but I got to admit that it had a little used plot. Sure I've seen movies that are about getting the parents into a senior assisted home but those movie are usually comedies and when they are serious it's usually so serious that it makes the movie depressing. Fred Won't Move Out has a little comedy in it but it's mostly a serious movie about the an aging couple being told to leave thier home of fifty years. It's not that depressing of a movie which I was extremely glad of, and it might not have an all original story to it, but it's a movie that is still out of the ordinary.

STORY:
Fred Won't Move Out was one really, extremely, boring, yet captivating movie. This is a slow progressing movie, there's nothing excited happening at all, and there's really no story in the plot. What I took away from this movie was nothing, other than that if you have good actors and a DP who knows how to frame up good shots that does not mean you will have a good movie. What's most annoying about this movie was having no real closure at the end. There's a ending, something does occur that might be seen as an ending, but it's a weak ending, one that left me unsatisfied. Plus there's no real point to the movie, at least none that I got from the movie. Fred Won't Move Out just seems to be there with no real point to make, no real story to be said, but it does have some good cinematography.