"Go ahead, break my heart!" seems to be the theme for Liza Minnelli's Pookie Adams in this college age love story about a very insecure but likable young lady and her shy, nervous boyfriend (Wendell Burton) whom she goes after with fury the moment she meets him. "Come Saturday Morning" is one of the best movie themes ever, let alone of this "Hair" age drama, and sets up the mood perfectly for the gentle souls whose lives are explored. If Liza had not gone on to play Sally Bowles in "Cabaret", she would have been remembered forever in playing this part, a role filled with even more dimensions than the later role which won her the Oscar. Losing the Oscar for this to Maggie Smith's Jean Brodie, Minnelli is a modern age version of the characters Brodie was teaching in her British private school, so you can watch both films together and see many similar qualities. Burton, seemingly forced into dating the sometimes pesky Pookie, has the less showy role, but he underplays it with great humanity and is equally unforgettable. Excellent direction by Alan J. Pakula helps make the film flow smoothly. Minnelli's performance seems so modern in her energy that you almost expect her to whip out a cellphone and start texting to Burton every two minutes.
Review of The Sterile Cuckoo
The Sterile Cuckoo
(1969)
Lovely Liza will break your heart in this tale of insecurity and a fight for self-discovery.
5 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers