The movie should have focused solely on the psychological make-up of the Nick Nolte character, Tom, or of his mother. Instead we gets tons of the usual New Yorker vs. Southerner dialogue, a silly romance between Nick and Barbra which serves no purpose, a pointless interaction of Tom with Lowenstein's son. The childhood events of Tom and his family were so intense that the secondary plots were fluff. On top of that, the "yelling" school of acting was sometimes employed. When you can't think of any good dialogue, simple have the actor rant and rave loudly way out of proportion to the issue discussed. Exactly what made Tom lose and gain back interest in his loving family was really important but not really explained.
Review of The Prince of Tides
