Three married couples (Alan Alda and Carol Burnett, Jack Weston and Rita Moreno, Len Cariou and Sandy Dennis) are very close and take their vacations together. During one such vacation, Cariou expresses unhappiness with his marriage to Dennis and his intention to seek a divorce. After leaving his wife, Cariou falls for a much younger woman (Bess Armstrong) which causes conflict among his friends. Both written and directed by Alda, the film is ostensibly about the trials and tribulations that true friendship carries with it and how the tenuous bonds can be easily torn asunder. The film's main problem is that this an unlikable bunch. Alda is pompous and judgmental, Cariou is self centered, Weston is neurotic, Moreno is insensitive and Burnett is passive/aggressive. The characters laugh hysterically at their own situations which aren't remotely amusing and I suppose we're supposed to think, "What a great group of people" when they're the kind of people you try to avoid. Only Sandy Dennis somehow (it's certainly not in the writing) manages to create a recognizable human being in pain rather than a glib poseur tossing off one liners but, of course, she has the least amount of screen time. Used as an underscore, the music of Antonio Vivaldi is used like cinematic mayonnaise spread across the film.
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