Tall Story

Directed by Joshua Logan, Tall Story follows Jane Fonda’s June Ryder as she arrives at a small university hoping to capture the attention of the school’s beloved star basketball player (Anthony Perkins’ Ray Blent). Filmmaker Logan, working from Julius J. Epstein’s screenplay, delivers a terminally sluggish and hopelessly forgettable comedy that remains unable to capture the viewer’s attention and interest throughout, as the movie, which runs a short-yet-not-short-enough 91 minutes, suffers from an exceedingly, excessively lackadaisical atmosphere that’s compounded by the total lack of chemistry between Fonda and Perkins’ respective characters. (It’s too bad, really, given that the actors are about as personable and engaging here as one might’ve anticipated.) And although the picture admittedly does improve very slightly in its second half, particularly as certain plot developments begin to alleviate the aggressively uneventful narrative, Tall Story‘s long-since cemented its place as a thoroughly disposable endeavor that contains little worth recommending. (And this is to say nothing of the protracted, interminable climactic stretch.)

*1/2 out of ****