One of Sidney Lumet’s weakest features, the light comedy Garbo Talks features Anne Bancroft as Estelle Rolfe, a domineering divorcee who resides in New York, close to her grown son Gilbert (Ron Silver) and his wife Lisa (Carrie Fisher).
Grade: C
Though Lisa yearns to move back to her California origins, Gilbert is too attached to his mother—he’s a mamma’s boy. As Estelle is dying, her dutiful son offers to honor her last request to meet the reclusive actress, the Divine Garbo.
The plot is slender, sort of a string of vignettes, set in encounters with such vivid characters as a gay Garbo fan (Harvey Fierstein), an elderly Shakespearean actress (Hermione Gingold), a “female Joe Papp” director (Denny Dillon), and an aging papparazzi (Howard Da Silva).
Garbo finally makes an appearance, materializing in the shape of the playwright-scribe-lyricist Betty Comden.
MPAA: PG-13.
Running time: 104 minutes.
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Released: October 12, 1984
