On Golden Pond (1981) - film review

Norman Thayer is a retired college professor who been happily married to Ethel for almost five decades.  As they have done for the past 48 years, the couple return to their summer cottage on Golden Pond, this time to celebrate Norman’s eightieth birthday.  Ethel has invited Norman’s estranged daughter, Chelsea, and she turns up with her new boyfriend, Bill, and his thirteen-year-old son, Billy.  It is an uncomfortable reunion.  Norman is preoccupied with his advanced age and the fact that he is not long for this world.  Chelsea is unable to forgive her father for the way he neglected her when she was a child.   Ethel’s attempts to smooth troubled waters have limited success, and whilst Chelsea and Bill fly off for a month-long holiday in Europe, Billy is foisted on the elderly Thayers.  At first, Norman and Billy fail to hit it off, but when they go fishing together on the lake, a bond is forged between them and they become close, as though they were father and son. This is not what Chelsea had wanted to see when she returns...

This likeable low key drama was to be the swansong for one of Hollywood’s best-loved actors, Henry Fonda.  Aged 76 when he made the film, the actor died the following year, and many would argue that On Golden Pond is his finest hour.  Here, Fonda is partnered with another living legend, Katherine Hepburn, the first time they worked together.  Another first is Fonda appearing along side his daughter, Jane.  The latter was keen to make a film with her father and bought the rights to Ernest Thompson’s stage play specifically for that purpose.   The fraught father-daughter relationship depicted in this film closely mirrors the real-life rift between Henry and Jane Fonda.

With its minimal cast, constrained setting and unhurried pace, On Golden Pond is not a conventional Hollywood drama but rather a modest chamber piece, of the kind that Ingmar Bergman specialised in.  Whilst the film does occasionally stray a little too far into Schmaltzville, it is a poignant and well-observed piece of drama, well-acted, well-scripted and beautifully photographed.  The scenes that have the greatest impact are those with Fonda and Hepburn alone – these capture the trauma of growing old and facing death with a degree of honesty and emotional realism that is hard to find in an American film of this era.   Less successful is the film’s portrayal of inter-generational conflict – this feels somewhat more contrived and requires far more space than is given to it.  

Although critical reaction to the film was very mixed, On Golden Pond was a major commercial success.  Grossing over 100 million dollars, it was the second most successful film of the year, surpassed only by the cinematic Behemoth that was Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The film was nominated for ten Oscars and achieved wins in three categories: Best Actor (Henry Fonda, his first and only Oscar), Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn) and Best Adapted Screenplay.   

On Golden Pond is a moving, well-crafted minimalist drama, although its impact is diminished by some needless injections of cold-blooded sentimentality, such as the insertion of numerous shots which appear to have been lifted from a Disney-sponsored wildlife documentary.  Equally intrusive is the jarring eighties-style music which not only dates the film but brings a touch of tacky mawkishness which it could well do without.  In spite of this, thanks mainly to the sterling contributions of its lead performers, On Golden Pond is still a beguiling little film, one that tackles some painful subjects with an appealing mixture of realism, humour and pathos.

© James Travers 2009

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