That was an excellent one.

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A few things struck me while I was watching "On Golden Pond". The obvious thing was the co-starring of two generations of Fondas. I understand that Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda hadn't been on the best terms due to her political activism in the '60s, and so this movie was a sort of reconciliation for both of them.As for the plot, the movie comes across as a "nice movie" that you can take the kids to see. Katharine Hepburn's "knight in shining armor" quote pretty much sums up the movie's feeling. I'm not saying that it's a bad movie, just a little too fluffy. It's a surprise seeing Jane Fonda and Dabney Coleman play wife and husband, since they had just played enemies in "9 to 5".Basically, it's a watchable movie, but not any sort of masterpiece. Probably worth seeing once. So strange to think that Henry Fonda won an Academy Award for the role and died a few months later.

I've loved this movie since the first time I saw it. Love the chemistry between Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, great to watch two old pro's of Hollywood's golden era go at it and chew up some screen time. Loved the scenery and the music. Loved the fishing! I like to fish, so this movie holds a special appeal. One thing; most of the reviewers on here have been saying that Jane Fonda's performance as Chelsea was weak. I don't see it that way - I thought she did a good job, especially in her scenes with Katharine Hepburn. They really look enough alike to be a mother and daughter, and their chemistry in the couple of the one on one scenes they acted out together was remarkable! So, bore, bore, bore, you folks who were not impressed with Jane's performance here, to quote Ethel Thayer: I just don't think you're looking closely enough!

Who would think that the story of an elderly couple spending what is possibly their last summer together on their New England lake-front cottage and resolving old issues could end up being the surprise hit of the 1981 Christmas movie season? When those two elderly people are the legendary Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, the curiosity is definitely a factor in attracting audiences, but quick great reviews and excellent word of mouth made this pack audiences in. Even the young film audiences in a year filled with "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Clash of the Titans" and "Arthur" flocked to see this, and now they are passing their discovery onto their own children.Norman Thayer is the epitome of the grouchy octogenarian who has been estranged from his daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) for many years. She has remained close to her mother Ethel ("Thounds like I'm listhsping", Norman says in a more lighthearted moment as he reveals that her impending married name almost kept him from meeting her down the church aisle) but the rebellious teenaged years and not so understanding, strict father kept her from establishing a close bond with him as an adult. Now she's engaged to dentist Bill Ray (Dabney Coleman in a role a far cry from his lecherous boss in "Nine to Five", also with Jane) and soon to be stepmother to his son Billy Ray (Doug McKeon) whom she wants Norman and Ethel to take care of while she goes on a trip to Europe with Coleman. Much to Ethel's delight, Norman and Billy begin to bond, and when Chelsea returns, she finds herself envious over the new friendship which she has pined for but never pursued.Many of us can identify with the cold relationship between Norman and Chelsea, as well as Norman's bonding with the young boy who doesn't seem to fear him as Chelsea obviously did. The entire cast gives bravo performances, but it is the Oscar Winning Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn (her fourth!) who dominate here. At times, you do want to slap Jane like Cher did to Nicolas Cage in "Moonstruck" and yell, "Snap out of it!", but as she discloses, even a successful businesswoman can find her old insecurities rising when confronted with a past she hasn't been able to get over. Katharine is wise and understanding, but even she isn't above disciplining her embittered daughter. "That son of a bitch is my husband!", she reminds Jane. To see father and daughter working together after so much history of differences in their own lives and really bonding is touching, as it is to see Henry and Kate together in their first and only film. Then, there's seeing the rebel of the 1930's (Kate) with the rebel of the 70's (Jane), and there is magic in this mother/daughter pairing.McKeon strikes a cord here, too, working well with the older actors, especially Henry. The direction by Mark Rydell is superb, and the lake setting is gorgeous. I can tell you from experience that having spent several summers on New England set lakes in cottages exactly like this, the movie's reality level increased for me because of how similar it looked. Dave Grusin's music is also gorgeous, whether profound and sad as the opening credits play, to triumphant as McKeon takes the Thayers boat out on his own, to bittersweet as the closing credits roll after Ethel and Norman have bid farewell to their summer home which we all hope will not be their last there together. This has been successfully remade for T.V. and revived on Broadway, but there will never be another version like this, and it will enter your heart for eternity just as Kate says lovingly to Norman, "You are my knight in shining armor." Keep the handkerchief handy, even if this is a repeat viewing.

"On Golden Pond" works through the same themes that occupied many big-time play adaptations between the 1950s and the 1980s. Like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958) and "The Lion in Winter" (1968) it is about inter- generational family dysfunction, and it seems to want to embarrass or shock the audience through a frankness of discourse. It is the kind of script that purports to peel away the supposedly-artificial niceties of middle-class life to get to the meat of matters, which in the minds of these kinds of playwrights always seems to mean sex and death. Tennessee Williams and James Goldman made that format dance, and watching the great Hollywood versions of their works is thrilling because of the way they constantly try to set new records for speed and intensity and brutal honesty. "On Golden Pond" imitates these classics but with a lower degree of commitment. It's slower and gentler, and it never seems to let a barb stand unaccompanied by a sappy line or a nostalgic musical cue. It's a movie that's easy to like, because it's a suger-coated pill. As Williams and Goldman knew, there's nothing challenging about a sugar-coated pill. To them, the purpose of writing characters who speak in a forthright way about difficult issues was to make us face our fears and anxieties, and their genius was to do this while also being entertaining. "On Golden Pond" wants to do these things, but it wants to go down easy. That impulse is not altogether a bad one; compare it with another play adaptation, 1966's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," which aims to scream the loudest and cut the deepest only to end up as thoroughly unlikable as its characters. Toward the beginning, "On Golden Pond" echoes "Virginia Woolf" as Henry Fonda's irascible "old poop" tries to discomfit a polite younger man with blunt sexual talk. By the middle of the movie, though, this riff on Edward Albee's hard-edged approach gives way to a much sweeter narrative about an unlikely friendship between Fonda's 80-year-old and a 13-year-old boy. It's nice, but it's predictable and safe and familiar and forgettable whereas its predecessors succeeded by being none of those things. Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda are believable, though, and Jane Fonda threatens to upstage both of them as their adult daughter whose eyes betray an inner mixture of depression and resentment and a certain flightiness born of self-doubt. If nothing else, what "On Golden Pond" shares in full measure with its more ambitious and significant forerunners is magnificent acting by a top-shelf cast.