Barefoot in the Park Reviews

Laughs galore in early first screenplay by Simon, based on his Broadway success. Saks makes a fine impression in his first directorial stint, which features Redford and Fonda living in a small fifth-floor apartment in Greenwich Village. She thinks their place is lovely, but he, ever the conservative attorney, hates it. Boyer plays the slightly zany, womanizing upstairs neighbor who must go through their apartment to reach his. Ever a romantic, Fonda adores the old reprobate and fixes him up with her stodgy mother (Natwick). A series of comic and romantic complications ensues, some of which center around Redford's inability to let himself go--like the night he refused Fonda's entreaties to go barefoot in Central Park on a night when it was 17 degrees out and raining to boot. Love of course finds a way, and Redford finds a way to romp in a manner befitting the film's title. Redford and the Oscar-nominated Natwick, fresh from their Broadway triumph in the play, perform with the ease familiarity brings, and Fonda and Boyer also display the appropriate lightness of touch.