Alan Alda is Tynan, a New York senator who's a pretty nice guy. Barbara Harris is his nice psychiatrist wife. Meryl Streep is the nice married lawyer who comes between them. Everything in this movie, in fact, is incredibly sympathetic—except the System. Politics are making hash of poor Joe Tynan's idealism and happy home life. That Alda, who wrote this script, is concerned with tensions of career versus home and honesty versus expediency is admirable. The hearings, cocktail parties and hotel rooms of Washington don't make for big-screen excitement, however; neither does the TV-style, low-budget location shooting. The acting is generally good, particularly Blanche Baker (Carol Baker's daughter) as Alda's daughter, and Melvyn Douglas as an aging senator. But this is a movie without much charisma. (R)
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