Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Really Surprised!

Just so...so bad

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Barbra Streisand herself must have seen the potential of the play Nuts for a big screen drama. In Nuts she fulfilled the ambition of every player I know to get a courtroom drama. In fact a whole bunch of players got their turn to strut their stuff in Nuts.The play by Tom Topor only ran 96 performances on Broadway, but the producers were wise enough to retain Topor to expand his work so it is not just confined to a courtroom in the same way A Few Good Men was adapted to the big screen. The issue is whether the lawyer hired by Streisand's parents is acting in her best interests in getting her declared not mentally competent enough to stand trial. Streisand insists she's perfectly sane. But assaulting her own high priced mouthpiece William Prince in open court might not have been the best way to go in proving it. Needing an attorney real fast she gets a legal aid attorney in Richard Dreyfuss who gets dragged unwillingly into the case.After that we get to James Whitmore's court where the issue will be joined. To some degree Whitmore, prosecutor Robert Webber, court psychiatrist Eli Wallach, and Dreyfuss is defending "the system" and their role in it.Barbra's a high class hooker who gets $500.00 a night and she is accused of killing client Leslie Nielsen who's a brutish sort of lout and we see what really went down in flashback. But speaking of vested interests it's clear that Streisand's wealthy parents Maureen Stapleton and Karl Malden have clear vested interests in getting her confined to a mental institution instead of a public trial.Like A Few Good Men a great ensemble cast brings this story to life and it's riveting. In fact one of the things you'll question is whether Streisand herself is acting in her own best interests.Nuts is a great drama asking questions with deep implications about our mental health system as it applies to criminal justice. We often hear of people trying to 'get off' from criminal responsibility by pleading temporary insanity. That is a course that has its own pitfalls as Nuts clearly demonstrates.The viewer because of the flashbacks knows the real story. One of the great strengths of Nuts is that anyone might draw different conclusions as to whether Streisand is acting in her own best interests.I'm astounded that Nuts did not merit any Oscar consideration. That to me is Nuts.

This movie just serves as a star vehicle for Barbra Streisand. While it has a credible plot that kept me watching till the end, it is very contrived film. When the movie starts Barbra's lawyer is trying to prove to a judge that she is mentally ill, so that her parents are saved the embarrassment of a public trial, which will surely reveal that their daughter is a hooker.She punches her lawyer who abandons the case and the judge appoints a new lawyer for her. But even though she is sane, she doesn't really acts like that. She is openly hostile to her lawyer who is trying to help and refuses to submit to an independent psychological examination that can help her case. When the hearing starts she constantly interrupts it. And somehow the judge never holds her in contempt but just keeps giving her warning after warning.I do realize that she was a victim of child abuse and she is angry, but she is a big girl and is living as hooker for past 3 years. So I found the the whole affair very fake.

I was a child in 1988 and have no memory of this movie ever being released, so seeing it for the first time in 2009, gives me a completely different perspective. First of all, this movie is yet another example of, even if you are a producer, star, or legend, that doesn't make you right for the part. Barbra did an excellent job acting, but she wasn't right. When you see her in jail with all these cuckoos, you just laugh. It's like when Madonna tries to play every day people. We're not going to believe her as an every day gal, she's Madonna. Same deal here. A lot of her remarks make you laugh out loud, and it's supposed to be very serious. The ending was very good, but if over half the audience is bored with the monotonous courtroom, will they stick around til the end? Maybe for the 80s this was cutting edge, but for the modern era, we have seen this scenario about the crazy girl who is crazy because she was molested, about a zillion times. I thought Richard Dreyfuss was awesome. Having the entire setting in the courtroom made it boring. Honestly I feel Streisand was wise to make this movie during this era, but she should have produced and directed with either Jessica Lange or Glenn Close playing Claudia.

Manhattan call-girl has to prove her sanity in a courtroom hearing after she has killed a client; she says it was in self-defense, but now her mental state and her lifestyle--as well as her tumultuous childhood--are on trial. "Nuts" presents a dilemma for director Martin Ritt and his screenwriters, Tom Topor, Darryl Ponicsan and Alvin Sargent, working from Topor's play: how do you get an audience to sympathize with the heroine of your story, one who has a short fuse, a nasty disposition, and who rubs everybody else the wrong way? It probably wasn't possible, and protagonist Claudia Draper is an exasperating, meddling, infernal creation. Barbra Streisand obviously saw in the material a meaty dramatic role for herself as an actress and, although perhaps a bit too old for the part of Claudia Draper, she tackles the project with relish. Unfortunately, "Nuts" opens with such a flurry of manic energy that it's predictable the film won't be able to sustain or match that intensity for the rest of its length. Once the introductions are out of the way, the film settles into a talky, stagy formula, one complete with showboating solo moments for Streisand and most of her co-stars (with the exception of Richard Dreyfuss as her legal representative, who makes a bigger impact simply by keeping a lower profile). Streisand's abrasive Claudia is really the whole picture, and Barbra chews up so much scenery in the course of two hours I'd be surprised if she didn't hit the gym afterward. Still, a piece like this needs an electric personality in the lead if it's going to work at all, and Streisand does more for the role than a less-dynamic actress might have. Not a great picture by any means, and with an amusing/puzzling final shot of Streisand at the end, but one that is well-produced, interestingly edited and full of top talent and style. **1/2 from ****