This is a 'chamber piece' - the kind of film actors love to do but nobody pays to see. With fewer than 10 characters and virtually a single location, this off-centre comedy-drama is set in the obscure Blue Water Grill, where the owner (Gene Hackman), dolefully watching home movies of his dead wife, is sinking into debts, back taxes and self-pity. He has a girlfriend (Teri Garr), who's more of a concubine, and a dim-witted assistant (Elias Koteas) who looks after his senile, wheelchair-bound father-in-law (Burgess Meredith). Of course, Hackman should marry Garr and accept her savings and a partnership, but then we wouldn't have a movie, so we must watch as businessmen, knowing his land will soon be a goldmine, exert a devious squeeze to make him sell the Blue Water at rock-bottom price. Garr is excellent as the 36-year-old still living with her mother, but Hackman can't seem to put a consistent character together in this one.

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