Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 45

Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, April 10, 1984 Section 5 1 1 'Hard to Hold' clings to tired plot Ml) By Gone Siskel Movie critic KY DON'T irwles like "Hard to Hold" try to i CMiWlWC U9 limit, "Ol'J YOU CAN LOSE UP TO 30 LG'S. "Hard To Hold" Tribune mini-review: Hard to stomach Dlraetad by Larry Paaroa; aoraanptay by Tom Hadwy and Richard Hometaln; phoiociraphad by Rlc'tard Kllna; music by Tom Scott; produced by 0. Corutantlna Com; a Untvarul mm at lr Walaf Towar and outlying thaatara. Rated ra. THE CA8T Jam Robarta Rick SprlrHriMd Diana Lawaon Janat lunar Ninny Nldaa Paul Hanaart Johnny Unvaort Albert Salmi 113 AS LITTLE A3 40 DAVS AND It's here your chance to lose on the famous Nutri System program now at an extraordinary price.

NutriSystcm has helped thousands lose veight safely and quickly it will do the same for ycu! than in his songwriter-girlfriend I played by knockout model Pattl llansen. Few reasons are given. TRUE, HANSEN'S character has a drug problem, but early in the film it doesn't seem incurable. But what about the child pychologist? When Springfield crashes his car into hers, he doesn't know her occupation, so it must be love at first sight. Now sex appeal is a matter of taste, but Eilber is no match for Hansen at first sight.

And Springfield's character never spends much time watching Lilber work with children, so he can hardly admire her professionalism. Again, this Is the kind of movie that says to an audience, if our hero bumps into a woman in a car, that's reason enough for him to chase her for the rest of the movie. Forget that he and Hansen's character have much more in common. It's too bad something different didn't happen in "Hard to Hold," something right out of that old Mad magazine feature "Scenes We'd Like to See." Springfield bumps into the uptight psychologist and tries and tries to woo her Dut fails. Then, just when she is having second thoughts about him, he gives up chasing ner and rededicates himself to his old girlfriend, to solving her drug problem and to writing beautiful music with her.

Not surprisingly, that story probably would have more appeal for the rock audience for which "Hard to Hold" was made. LOSE UP TO A POUilD A DAY is reuuy mat mucn more difficult to create an unpredictable scene? Why do we just know in "Hard to for example, as soon as we see the female lead's drunken old father, that he is going to die in a big emotional scene that will bring his daughter and her boyfriend together? Why? Why? Why? Considering how long it takes to ft a script sold and made into a film, you would think the writer or the rewriter would have plenty of time to give a project more tfym a few variations from the norm. But that's not the case in "Hard to Hold," featuring pop rock star Rick Sprinnfield, making, his motion picture debut as pop rock star James Itoberts, who is luckier in music than in love. The film opens with a backstage scene that looks real. But it will be the last one in this movie.

We see James in his dressing room in San Francisco after the final concert of a long tour. He is exhausted, truly beat up. The scene reminds us of the punishment a rock performer must endure. BUT FROM that moment on, "Hard to Hold" turns into a TV soap opera. James, after being locked out of his dressing room without his clothes, borrows a friend's car, crashes it into another car driven by a pretty child psychologist and spends the rest of the movie trying to establish a relationship with the psychologist, who prefers Tony Bennett to rock.

Just from that synopsis you can predict much of this movie: the fake quarrels, the making up, the love scene, the additional fake quarrels, the breakdown in his writing and the eventual reunion. Why can't we have a movie that stands predictability on its head? "Hard to Hold" suffers other problems. We don't spend enough time in concert with Springfield to appreciate him musically or to like him personally. This is one of those movies that says, in effect, he's the star so you like him. Additionally, "Hard to Hold" asks us to believe that Springfield's character would be more interested in the child psychologist Janet Eilber Kathy Brown Lost 121 lbs.

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