A middle aged magazine publisher calmly decides to kill himself and his family.
A deliberately paced, depressing character study. Hal Holbrook is so good in the lead role that you almost forget that his character is a pompous, self-absorbed misogynist, while Louise Fletcher is excellent as his long-suffering wife. These fine performances probably save the film from falling apart, but there is a lot to recommend here just the same.
The film offers a potent critique of traditional relationships between men and women, and although I’m not sure if either writer/director Jeff Kanew or source-novelist Julius Horowitz intended it to be this way, it does so from a decidedly feminist perspective.
Holbrook, as Paul Steward, embodies every notion of the man as sole provider for, and protector of, the family, and of the “strong, silent” type. He admits to being mystified by the opposite sex, and seems completely unable to relate to his wife as a fellow human being; her suffering only becomes an issue when it inconveniences him, and he is utterly oblivious to his role in causing it.
The film is vague as to whether the massacre actually happens; my interpretation is that it does, but the film offers us a glimpse of an alternate possibility if Steward had reached out to friends (including a standout turn from Jose Ferrer as a holocaust survivor) for help, or perhaps just tried talking to his wife, instead of bearing all the responsibility himself.
On the less-positive side, the film veers uncomfortably into kitsch as Holbrook cavorts with a quintet of prostitutes while expounding upon his history of marital problems and his pretentious, angsty worldview. As alluded to above, if anyone other that Holbrook played this role, the character would have been completely insufferable, which would have compromised the film’s watchability.
As it stands, Natural Enemies is a flawed, but intriguing and expertly-acted film. Recommended.
Give it a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlLgTo59PVc
Germ Attack 