On Golden Pond (1981) review

"Middle-aged" Professor Norman Thayer (Henry Fonda) and his wife Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) vacation at their summer home in New England where she picks strawberries and he enjoys fishing - later on, their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) shows up with her boyfriend Dr. Bill (Dabney Coleman) and asks them to be surrogate grandparents to Bill's son (Doug McKeon).  Too many of the scenes revolve around Norman experiencing health problems (both physical and mental) and talking about death and there's plenty of bad symbolism (loons, a broken door, "Walter" the elusive fish, shattered plates), but here's an instance where Star Power helps elevate common material: Hepburn adds just the right touches on her lines (she kills the "knight in shining armor" scene) and Fonda's got some zingers that he lands with precision ("I guess I'd be delighted to have you abuse my daughter under my own roof.").  Screenwriter Ernest Thompson - who adapted his play to the screen - wrote this when he was only 28 years old, so you have to wonder if it's merely what a youngster thinks aging is like....