Director: Fielder Cook
Year Released: 1986
Rating: 1.0
A children's furniture salesman (Robin Williams) who is always on the verge of crying and saddled with interpersonal problems doesn't try to work himself out of his problems logically but instead keeps going back to his rich father over and over again for forgiveness while trying to make money the easy way on commodities, led foolishly by a shyster Jerry Stiller. As his life continues to fall apart - he's also having trouble making payments to the wife and children he left for his mistress - he sinks further into despair. A sane man may have tried different options to gain employment, but Williams' character is a pathetic wreck undeserving of sympathy, trying to take the easy way out; to make matters worse, Williams plays him like a worthless, twitching failure that isn't pitiable but contemptible. The cast around him overacts to such a gross degree it would be hard to pick out a single worst offender; it's hard to believe that this came from a novel by Saul Bellow (the book, which I haven't read, had to either have been butchered or just been too difficult to translate to the screen).
