Dick Van Dyke is a national treasure. For the better part of a century, the comedian has entertained audiences with his endlessly flexible physical comedy, cheerful personality and big heart. That means there is no such thing as a bad Dick Van Dyke movie. (Don't double check this, trust me.) Many of Van Dyke's films are crowd pleasers, but only one has been certified and unanimously loved by critics. According to Rotten Tomatoes.
The film in question is “Divorce American Style,” a comedy by comedy producer Bud York. Norman Lear is best known today as York's producing partner and half of the team behind hit shows like “All in the Family,” “Sanford and Son” and “Maude.” However, four years before “All in the Family” aired, Yorke was in the director's chair for “Divorce American Style,” which was written by none other than Lear himself. Van Dyke played another brilliant movie star, Debbie Reynolds, in a film that earned Lear and screenwriter Robert Kaufman their first and only Oscar nominations.
American-style divorce saw Van Dyke in uncharted territory
Like many highly rated films on Rotten Tomatoes, “Divorce American Style” is worth a look in the critical score department, thanks to the relatively small number of critics who have reviewed it. Any super-popular film can inspire dissenting voices, with low scores for some of Van Dyke's most beloved films (“Mary Poppins” impressed 97% of critics, while only 86% praised the artistic merit of “Bye Bye Birdie”). “). Meanwhile, “Divorce American Style” wasn't always heralded as a classic, but it impressed the critics cited by RT who saw it… all eight of them.
Considering that Rotten Tomatoes sometimes omits older print reviews in its collection, most reviews do A positive image should be painted of “American-style divorce.” When it was released in 1967, a young Roger Ebert, just starting his job at the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars. He was one of several critics who praised the film's surprisingly satirical nature, noting that neither Reynolds nor Van Dyke at the time had “biting social commentary” but that the film had “that rare kind of Hollywood humor.” Teeth in it.” In a film about an eventual divorce, Ebert concludes, the two unlikely protagonists “prove that they are capable of playing very challenging roles”; why, as Ebert says, “it's funny and why it's ultimately not funny.” “
Despite its excellent reputation on Rotten Tomatoes, there appears to be at least one negative review of “Divorce American Style.” Bosley Crowther's review in the New York Times mocks the film for not taking the topic of divorce seriously: calling it “a social practice that disrupts many American homes” and calling it “depressing, disturbing and irritating, often difficult to reverse”. A great American poop joke is a sacred object.” Crowther also disliked his leading man's performance, writing that the “Dick Van Dyke Show” star “laughs too much for this serious, comedic husband role, too much of a hardcore TV comedian.” I guess you can't please everyone.
Today, Van Dyke is best known for his family films and straightforward comedies, but “Divorce American Style” remains a unique and acclaimed entry in his long and entertaining film career.
