Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

The acting is superb. Cannon proves an expert comedienne. She and Gould practically steal the film, although admittedly they have the best lines. Wood and Culp give equally fine performances....The film is almost flawless, presenting the issues in a pleasing, entertaining and thought-provoking manner.

The genius of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice is that it understands the peculiar nature of the moral crisis for Americans in this age group, and understands that the way to consider it is in a comedy.

The scenes involving Gould and Cannon are small miracles of timing; Cannon (who looks a bit like Lauren Bacall and a bit like Jeanne Moreau, but the wrong bits) is also remarkably funny in her scenes with an analyst (played by the analyst Donald F. Muhich). You can feel something new in the comic spirit of this film - in the way Mazursky gets laughs by the rhythm of cliches, defenses, and little verbal aggressions.

Too often dismissed as modish, it's in fact a mostly very funny, insightful, gently romantic account of well-meaning couples.

The dialog is wonderful, but at times director Mazursky sacrifices the human element of his story to indulgent camerawork.

Once the pop sensibilities are out of the way, this clever foursome becomes more than the sum of its part.

The results are pretty obnoxious and only intermittently funny, but certainly characteristic.