MOVIE REVIEWS : Divorce Leads to ‘A New Life’ for Alan Alda, Ann-Margret

With the crisply entertaining romantic comedy “A New Life” (citywide), Alan Alda, as writer-director-star, has done himself a favor: This time he’s not a determinedly nice guy, a real relief after the strain of the synthetic “Sweet Liberty” and “The Four Seasons.”

Gray-bearded and curly-haired, Alda’s Manhattanite Steve Giardino is as frankly middle-aged as he is a hopeless workaholic. Steve has a seat on the American Stock Exchange and is in a constant state of exasperation and self-absorption. After 26 years of marriage, his wife, Jackie (Ann-Margret), has finally had it with a husband who hasn’t made time for her since their daughter went off to college.

We’ve seen the saga of the growing pains of the newly divorced before, but Alda has added some fresh wrinkles. To be sure, he takes Steve and Jackie through the familiar dating horrors, but after just the right amount of time he lets them both find romance. For Steve it’s the cool, patrician Dr. Kay Hutton (Veronica Hamel). As for Jackie, it’s a handsome young sculptor who calls himself Doc (John Shea).

Steve and Jackie aren’t the same with the new people in their lives as they were with each other. (Throughout, there’s a sense of sadness that two people who have been married so long make efforts for others that they won’t with each other; this applies especially to Steve.) Steve is determined to be attentive to Kay while Jackie gradually allows herself to have an affair with a man younger than herself. (The truth is that Ann-Margret is so gorgeous she looks better with Shea than with Alda.) Kay and Doc seem too good to be true; Kay is self-possessed yet adoring, while Doc worships Jackie.

What Alda has in store for us is not as predictable as you might imagine, and he’s written some very good parts for himself and his co-stars, whom he has directed with considerable skill.

These four people are very human in their strengths and failings. While it’s easier to see how Doc could fall for Jackie than Kay for Steve, even with his cleaned-up act, it’s possible to see clearly in their romances how crucial give-and-take is to all relationships. Amusingly--and accurately--Kay and Doc are not entirely what they seem to be at first meeting. A generation younger than Jackie, Kay has expectations of Steve that he never anticipated. On the other hand, Jackie never could have dreamed that constant adoration could be a mite stifling. Could it be that at heart Kay is essentially dominating--and that Doc is fundamentally immature?

You wish Alda had given Jackie and Doc equal time with Steve and Kay, but we can be grateful that Ann-Margret and Shea do a lot to balance matters out through sheer presence. By the same token Alda has given all his funniest lines to Hal Linden as Steve’s gleefully unrepentant playboy pal, while Mary Kay Place, as Jackie’s best friend, is stuck with crude jokes.

“A New Life” (MPAA-rated PG-13 for adult themes) is a sleek, middle-of-the-road diversion with some admirable substance and apt New York locales. As always, it is a special pleasure to watch Ann-Margret, who has become that rarity in American films, a glamorous star who is also an impeccable ensemble player.

‘A NEW LIFE’

A Paramount presentation. Executive producer Louis A. Stroller. Producer Martin Bregman. Writer-director Alan Alda. Camera Kelvin Pike. Music Joseph Turrin. Associate producers Barbara Kelly, Michael Scott Bregman. Production designer Barbara Dunphy. Costumes Mary McLeod. Film editor William Reynolds. With Alan Alda, Ann-Margret, Hal Linden, Veronica Hamel, John Shea, Mary Kay Place, Beatrice Alda, David Eisner, Victoria Snow, John Kozak.

Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes.

MPAA-rated: PG-13 (parents strongly cautioned; some material may be inappropriate for children under 13).