University of Virginia Library

CINEMA

Peeking When
You Shouldn't

By STEPHEN GRIMWOOD

Richard Benjamin is a mild
voyeur, Joanna Shimkus is bored,
and together they form the
"Marriage of a Young
Stockbroker."

Lawrence Turman has taken
hopefully the last of Charles Webb's
books and attempted to create the
next episode in the life of "The
Graduate." Richard Benjamin has
now taken up the touch of the
young and confused middle class
hero who is vainly trying to adjust
himself to the "real" world.

Life in America is quickly
established when the successful
stockbroker in the desk next to
Benjamin's drops dead. Our hero
belches and then leaves for the
afternoon to mourn while watching
a skin flick. Here the film suddenly
shifts, as it does many times, from
lousy American life to adolescent
fantasies. Somehow, this is the
problem in the life of the young
stockbroker, a tenuous connection
between a disgust for the American
way and a bad habit of peeking
when one shouldn't.

The marriage of our stockbroker
is naturally also somewhat tenuous
and in fact eventually breaks down
completely.. This process was
somewhat boring and definitely
confusing. The entire movie is best
explained by how it was resolved.
Benjamin quits his job, goes to
Mexico and gets a diverse, comes
back and lays his ex-wife in a towel
closet in the women's shower room
of an exclusive country club. Thus,
a happy ending.

If you can relate that, you'll
understand the movie. If not, the
picture is somewhat enjoyable in
that watching someone else watch
can be done without guilt. Or can
it?

(Now at the Barracks Road)