On Golden Pond (Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn)

It’s almost ten years since we saw - and loved - the 1981 film ‘On Golden Pond’. We vaguely remembered the story and characters, although we had forgotten most of the detail. It’s a film about an older couple, one which I can remember finding slightly stressful the first time we saw it, as I kept thinking some tragedy was about to happen. This time, although I couldn’t recall how it ended, I felt more confident that I would like it all.

Henry Fonda stars as the somewhat grouchy and outspoken Norman. He and his wife Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) have gone to stay in their holiday home by a wonderful lake. Norman has some heart problems, for which he takes medication, and he’s also starting to get a bit of memory loss, which disturbs him more. But he’s approaching 80 and Ethel, ten years his junior, is determined to celebrate.

Their daughter Chelsea has agreed to visit, along with her new man - a dentist called Bill (Dabney Coleman). Norman and Chelsea have a very tense relationship; she is very sensitive, and feels as if he still treats her like a small child, despite her being an adult with a career and a string of relationships. It’s suggested that she has trouble staying in a relationship as she never resolved the tensions she feels with her father.

Chelsea and Bill bring Bill’s 13-year-old son Billy Junior (Doug McKeon) with them. He immediately clashes with Norman, but his outspokenness and teenage angst appeal to Norman’s natural cantankerousness, and he’s able to handle Billy much better than anyone else. And when Bill and Chelsea leave for a conference, young Billy and the elderly Normal forge an unlikely bond over fishing.

The casting is superb; Chelsea is played by Henry Fonda’s daughter Jane, with whom he apparently had a tense relationship anyway. The scenery is fabulous, the pace gentle but never dull. There are some terrific lines, mostly from Norman, which made us laugh out loud and there are also some very poignant moments. There are underlying ‘lessons’ about how to handle difficult family members; Chelsea resents the fact that her father gets along much better with Billy than he ever did with her - or so she feels, full of resentment at the way he behaves.

There are some tense scenes, a few fishing incidents where I had to turn away rather than watch, and a great deal of love, albeit often badly expressed. It’s a character-based story which allows blossoming friendships and healed relationships, but the problems and anxieties of old age are not hidden or glossed over. It’s thought-provoking and revealing, and we both thought it a wonderful film.

Rated PG, perhaps for the very mild language and a couple of tense scenes, but it’s unlikely to be of interest to anyone under the age of about twelve or thirteen anyway. Probably most interesting to people in their fifties or older.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews