Just the Way You Are

Directed by Édouard Molinaro, Just the Way You Are follows Kristy McNichol’s Susan Berlanger as she embarks on a vacation in the French Alps and decides to hide her handicapped leg by wearing a cast instead of her brace – with the narrative detailing Susan’s eventual relationship with an American photographer (Michael Ontkean’s Peter) and her ongoing efforts at coming clean about her disability. It’s a fairly thin premise that’s employed to excessively deliberate and mostly tedious effect by Molinaro, as the filmmaker, working from Allan Burns’ script, delivers a meandering, momentum-free drama that boasts few elements designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest – with the underwhelming atmosphere heightened and perpetuated by McNichol’s less-than-sympathetic turn as the somewhat off-putting protagonist. Molinaro’s aggressively lackadaisical sensibilities are compounded by an episodic narrative that’s generally more miss than hit, as the emphasis is consistently placed on uninvolving, pointless sequences that have seemingly been included to pad-out the often interminable running time (eg Susan competes in a skiing competition for handicapped people). And while the satisfying finale ensures that the whole thing, at the very least, concludes on a positive note, Just the Way You Are is, for the most part, a dull little drama that rarely, if ever, justifies its very existence.

* out of ****