Goodbye, Columbus
Director: Larry Peerce
Year Released: 1969
Rating: 2.0
So-so adaptation of Philip Roth's breakthrough novella that dissects the relationship between a Jewish librarian (Richard Benjamin) and his girlfriend, a college student (Ali MacGraw) who comes from a 'prosperous' family. Historically, films based on Roth's books have been really clumsy or outright awful (Portnoy's Complaint, The Human Stain), and this is only average: though Benjamin is witty as the out-of-his-league seducer, the picture's dated trappings (zooms, an awful score) and shallowness are noticeable. Best line from the actual text that isn't in the movie (but should have been): "No sense carrying dreams of Tahiti in your head, if you can't afford the fare."
