Desperate Characters

A childless middle-aged couple — freelance book translator Sophie Bentwood (Shirley MacLaine) and her lawyer husband, Otto (Kenneth Mars) — face the deterioration of their Brooklyn neighborhood and the parallel corrosion of their marriage in this compelling drama. As their emotional stress builds, so do their disillusionment and paranoia. Sada Thompson and Carol Kane co-star in director Frank D. Gilroy’s adaptation of Paula Fox’s novel.