DVD Review: The Gin Game

The Gin Game

[DVD Gin] 

 

I picked this film up on DVD from a library display mainly because I was intrigued at seeing Mary Tyler Moore in something other than either The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show or a comedy-variety special. (Sadly, I’ve never seen her Oscar-nominated performance in Ordinary People [1981]). I was familiar with the background of this Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play by D.L. Coburn, knowing that it is most often associated with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, who performed it on stage for many years, and also appeared in a filmed version in 1981. This made-for-TV film version was from 2003.

 

Moore plays Fonsia Dorsey, a somewhat repressed, and definitely depressed older woman who is uncomfortably trying to settle into life in a senior care facility. She misses her previous life, and can’t bring herself to participate in the forced social activities at “the home”. One day, avoiding interacting with the group activities, she stumbles into the facility’s sun room and finds Weller Martin (played by her former TV spouse Dick Van Dyke), playing cards by himself at a folding table. They strike up a conversation, and discover that they both consider themselves “outsiders” to life in the old folks’ home. Against her protestations, Weller convinces Fonsia to join him in playing the card game Gin.

 

Over the course of multiple encounters, they play Gin, and Fonsia continually wins, exasperating Weller, who thought he’d found an easy mark. Their congenial conversations become more heated and more personal, as Weller becomes more and more frustrated at losing. Ugly truths are shared with each other, making for major dramatic performances from both of these gifted actors.

 

This TV-movie version of this story is fairly low-budget but the performances are top notch. I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed by Mary Tyler Moore’s range. I strongly recommend this film, but can’t score it better than an 8 because of its abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying ending. My recommendation comes with the caveat that these are NOT Rob and Laura Petrie…so don’t be expecting a genial laugher with this film.

[If you can track down the 1981 version of The Gin Game with Cronyn and Tandy, it’s definitely worth seeing as well.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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