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Carnal Knowledge: A Review

I watched this movie because a friend recommended it to me. I watched this movie on videotape – but I’m not holding that against it.

The movie started out with Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel as college roommates. I know what you’re thinking and I never would have put those two together either. It’s all about sex (as the movie’s title suggests) and it's all they talk about. In the beginning it’s about the race to get the girl. In the end, well, it seems to me it was about one man destroying another man and himself along the way.

First of all, I never once bought that Nicholson was a virgin. I never once saw Candice Bergen as a woman who would give in so easily.

I thought the direction was dark and the love scenes were embarrassing to watch. They were clumsy and awkward even when they were supposed to be comfortable and easy. There was a reviewers comment on the box that read, “I have experienced only three or four movies that I was genuinely sorry to see end. I was sorry to see ‘Carnal Knowledge’ end!”

Count me in the opposite corner – I couldn’t WAIT for it to end. As well as the picture being dark, I don’t think the director did a good job at signifying time change. It usually took me a few minutes to realize “Oh, I think some time has passed” and then I had to replay the past few minutes in my mind to figure out what was going on.

After seeing this a couple times, I just stopped doing it. My mind wandered about halfway through the picture and I stopped caring about the characters. Candice Bergen’s character somehow left the film and I couldn’t tell you how because I just lost interest. I had to know how it ended though and it was fairly unsatisfying.

The bright spot? Surprisingly, Art Garfunkel can act. I identified with his portrayal of Sandy, the shy second-fiddle to Nicholson’s overbearing Jonathan. While Jonathan blasted through women like they were mere objects, Sandy had a subtle sensitivity that made him likeable but not lovable to women (sound familiar?)

The other bright spot? I have to say seeing Ann-Margaret in the nude was a nice little trinket but, in my eyes, couldn’t save this movie for me.

My grade: C-

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