Review of Coming Home (1978) by Craig T — 07 Jan 2011

This quite a different wartime drama. It is about a woman cheating on her husband who is away fighting in Vietnam. She is lonely and has a chance to be on her own for once in her life. The man she is seeing is a Vietnam veteran who is bound to a wheelchair due to his injuries.

It is hard for me to care much for Voight or Fonda since they seem pushed together in almost a forced relationship or in it for lack of options. Voight admits that he and friends used to mock her in high school.

Voight embodies all that Dern will not let Fonda be. She wants to work and he won't allow it so she literally falls for her volunteer work: Voight. Voight as an actor has rarely ever struck me as the talented lead man many see him as.

Furthermore, it is difficult to see where Fonda falls for the veteran based on his disposition. He is not charming or handsome and basically puts her down initially. Dern portrays a better character I feel.

He removes himself from the situations he must face and with no resolve. Here is the more believable character, as he runs away from the pains from war and the pains that he comes home to. Where all the actions and chemistry in Coming Home do not add up with me, Derns reactions and closure make the most sense.

He plays a good part in Ashbys effort but can't hold up all the tent poles by himself. Two similar movies came out in the same year. Coming Home is a bit trashy and it is difficult to see past that.

The Academy surely looks back on this year with regrets to Robert DeNiro. His performance in The Deer Hunter represents far superior skill just as The Deer Hunter is the superior film than Coming Home.

(D).