User reviews

This is one of Lasse Hallestrom's best films. It is a richly textured, completely unique character study of a youngish woman named Renata, played superbly by Holly Hunter in what is arguably her best performance. Renata comes from a close Italian family outside of Boston, and has drifted from job to job without much confidence or direction. Her family is very supportive of her, but rather than drawing strength form their support, Renata seems to dwell safely in it, choosing to let them be her safety net.

Renata goes on a weekend junket where she is recruited to take a position selling timeshares in the Caribbean. While she is there she meets Sam, the dynamic and aggressive top salesman, who impresses her greatly when she hears him speak. A flirtation develops, and she ends up traveling back to Boston with him.

The brash, confident Sam clashes inadvertently with her family's more traditional and reserved style, and while it is evident Sam is crazy about Renata, the family has reservations about him. A compelling and utterly captivating story ensues, which unlike most small films, takes major risks, and allows every character to be completely human.

The story deals with the power of acceptance, of love, of the magic and complete idiocynracy of personal connection, and of what it means to be alive and human. Sam is difficult--he is over the top, and loud, and exhausting. Yet the film is equally balanced in showing his many kindnesses to Renata and her entire family; his generosity, his love for her, and his pride that she loves him. Their love is peculiar and inexplicable, and yet they complete one another in that indefinable way that epitomizes the mystery of love.

it's not a sappy love story. The movie shows people warts and all, and loves them anyway. All the characters are respected. By the end, I am usually in tears. Renata tells her parents, "This is MY adventure!" and when you watch this, I think you will agree.

I stumbled across this film late one night when there was nothing on HBO, Showtime or the countless other channels in our now 500-channel universe. "Once Around" has a great cast, an excellent story line and a song track that I just love.

Any film that has Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter as leads and Gena Rowlands as a supporting actress should be a must see film and I don't know how this one got passed me when it was first released. It seems Richard Dryfuss's "Where Bob?" got all the attention in 1991 and this film seems to have come in under the radar.

"Once Around" displays real emotions, conflicts and family dynamics in a way that makes you laugh and makes you cry. Danny Aiello gives a great performance without going over the top and a young, Laura San Giacoma, before her "Just Shoot Me" days gives a glimpse of the star she should have become.

Congratulations to all who were involved in the endeavor.

Being one of my favorite movies, I have seen it many times. It is a nice little movie that tells a nice little story. After glancing at the unbelievable negative comments here, it is clear that these few (3) users simply do not understand that the Richard Dreyfuss character is supposed to be arrogant! While they find this trait unappealing, it is CENTRAL to the film! My goodness! Without him being the way he is, the other central character played by Holly Hunter, would not be able to change and grow and ultimately be able to separate herself from her parents. This is a wonderful film where all the actors are completely believable. Danny Aiello is also remarkable and the interplay between he and Gena Rowlands is classic.

Once Around is to me a love story - romantic love, familial love, love of life. I've seen this movie probably 10 times and I watched it again yesterday with the love of my life. He had never seen it before but agreed with me that it is a lovely film. Sam Sharp's behavior can be painful at times to watch, but he is so full of childlike belief in the goodness of everyone else that you can't help but feel real affection for him and no more so than when he kisses Joe Bella on the cheek in the most tender and loving way even after the cruel way he was treated. Gena Rowlands,Danny Aiello, Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter are all so believable in their roles. When Marilyn Bella says to Sam Sharp "I will not allow you to make my husband's family uncomfortable"(or words to that effect) she is like a mother lion defending her cubs. I love this movie and now I start to tear up even when something good is happening because I know what's coming next. I hope no one is discouraged from renting this movie because of the negative comments posted here. It's only $1.00 and you can always turn it off, but maybe you will see something heartwarming and that is pretty hard to find these days.

Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter star in an offbeat comedy where the characters are the punchlines. Holly Hunter gives another excellent performance with a dead on Boston accent. This is her character's story more than anyone else. Although Danny Aiello and Gena Rowlands add to the movie, it is Hunter's story. Laura San Giacomo is a surprise as well. She is hardly in the movie, but she is as strong as Gena Rowlands...which I may add is a giant task. If you love Dreyfuss, you will love his over the top performance as an old man who wears his heart on his sleeve. Aiello is just as good if not better. Both characters are seen as father figures. By the end of the movie, the two are more like brothers. A touching story that keeps the character development moving until the end of the movie. Not many comedies are like this one.

I just saw this for the first time and I feel it means well, but the writing and the pacing miss the mark a little. I can see why many people love it, though, and I have a few movies like this in my own favorites category. "Crimes of the Heart" and "Love and Death On Long Island" for example, and the masterful "Moonstruck".

The reason I'm posting is that I was living in Durham, NC when this film was made. The exterior shots of the large family home were done there, and some of the home interiors were. It was early spring in NC before too many of the trees started blooming, which allowed it to resemble a Boston winter. I guess the low-cost of the supporting help and convenience of the balmy temperatures made this change of locales worth the trouble.

Just thought true fans might want to know.

An extremely well-crafted script developing a wide range of individual psychologies within an extended family, together with good casting and acting make this an exceptional film. None of the characters is, to my taste, naturally attractive or charismatic, but as personalities striving to maintain stability in their lives, they are fascinating and fuel a continual dramatic tension.

Dreyfuss plays the most enigmatic character, the one "tearing apart" the family, and so has the central role, but his past remains a mystery. When we first encounter him he is alone, a man in his sixties perhaps, staring out over the sea, with behind him a divorce only recently finalized. He delivers a materialistic and self-gratifying speech, with horrifically inappropriate humor, to a flock of aspiring condominium salespeople and proceeds to "fall in love" and quickly marry the immature "baby" member of the film's subject family. But behind his frequently obnoxious salesman's rhetoric and showy possessions, just who is he, and what are his motives? Why did his prior marriage fail? What scars does he bear from the 40s, when he was born in Lithuania and somehow escaped with at least his mother for the States? While looking out over the sea was he contemplating suicide? Was suicide in his mind when he met the simpleton girl on a rooftop with no guard rail and opted to grab on to her for help? His background is eclipsed behind the family's bourgeois Italian-American heritage, as though only Italian ethos can matter, or can be stylishly accepted - so he's given little opportunity to explain. Otherwise, the emptiness and tactlessness of his impromptu speeches seem to underscore an ingrained sense of the absurd and perhaps of despair.

Dreyfuss' character has large gaps, gaping scars - like the ragged edges of a piece of a puzzle, a piece that fits perfectly into the poorly developed, ragged edges of the family's youngest and otherwise socially inept and professionally helpless daughter. Together they form a whole - not necessarily people we'd like to know or befriend, but - but they drive the film to a dramatic climax.

As said, this film develops the characters of a extended family - not just the two above. This is a film well worth seeing and thinking about - and it seemed to me, just off and on (and in some close-ups) a little Swedish in its sensitivity.

In Boston, Renata Bella (Holly Hunter) is doing badly in love. Her younger sister Jan (Laura San Giacomo) gets married. Her parents (Danny Aiello, Gena Rowlands) are happily in love. For her love life, her boyfriend tells her that he would never marry her and dumps her. She gets a new job selling time shares in the Caribbean. She goes there to take the seminar and falls for brash charismatic presenter Sam Sharpe (Richard Dreyfuss).

Renata is adorable. I don't care that much about Sam but despite that, the family's reaction to him has no great support. It may work if he's a drunk. He's older but that's never used as an excuse. It seems mostly his self-confidence and commanding personality which is pushing the family apart. That may still work if the family is a bunch of wallflowers. This family is full of big personalities with big personality actors. They are well equipped to tell Sam whatever they want. It would never get to this point. This seems wrongly considered. Sam needs to be more flamboyant and the family needs to be more shy. The clash of personalities is expected but is not justified.

A crop of strong actors led down the wrong path. Who told these guys to make this movie? The lead, Richard Dreyfuss, is obnoxious and annoying and the characters' behavior doesn't always make sense. Don't bother unless you are a fan of one of the actors or your cablevision is out.

There are scenes in "Once around" when you think the Dreyfuss character is just too much. He's so in your face that you just want him to disappear. Despite this, his character is a very lovable person who seems to care about the ones he loves, just that he might do that a little too much. Sometimes you wonder if he's a conman or if he really is that caring, but in the end you find out that he really is that caring. This movie has a lot of funny lines and scenes, it may not be the best movie I've seen but for sure one of the funniest and moving ones.

In my opinion 'Once Around' is a movie that was clearly never marketed correctly. It is a well written and has wonderfully created characters each with there own strengths and weaknesses. I admit that only reason I thought to watch it at first is that I find Holly Hunter totally enchanting. Upon watching a few minutes I was sucked in to find out what happens next. Granted most would consider it a 'chick flick', but I generally do not like 'chick flicks'. The trials and tribulations that each member of the family go through upon meeting 'Sam'(Richard Dreyfuss) and the things said amongst the characters are sad, funny and a good representation of life within families. It makes you think, laugh and even cry (yes I admit to it). Anybody who has ever tried to fit in with their spouse's family will definitely find this movie truly entertaining and possibly closer to the truth than parody. Richard Dreyfuss plays the part of a salesman really well. Danny Aiello plays the father of Holly Hunter and really makes the movie in my opinion. The supporting cast does a really good job of playing a family that has inner turmoil like most families tend to have. I think most people who watch this movie will be able to relate to this unsung gem!

By coincidence I saw Once Around few years ago. The next day I went to the shop and bought myself a copy. Since then I've watched this film whenever I feel my own life is in a mess. I don't know why, but every time I watch Once Around I'm assured in the knowledge that it is un-important how unlike or disagreeing family members are, no argument can tear them apart. (This might of course not always be the case – but a nice thought anyway). Once Around is about the Bella Family. The head of the family Joe Bella, wonderfully played by Danny Aiello, is about to retire. His two daughters are at the age of leaving home and/or getting married. Something his son has already done. After Jan Bella (Laura San Giacoma) is married, her sister, Renata (Holly Hunter), asks her boyfriend to marry her. To her surprise and irritation he is not willing, nor ever planning on, getting married to her. Renata is forced to re-evaluate her life, and takes up a job selling apartments. There she meets larger-then-life character Sam Sharpe (Richard Dreyfuss), and falls in love with him. Sam is one of these guys that lives for the minute, and by his own rules and values. Once he becomes part of the Bella family, the usually close-knitted family starts to experience difficulties, and arguments become a daily occurrence.

Holly Hunger and Richard Dreyfuss have brought their talents together before with good result (Always), and are as successful here in creating chemistry between the two characters. Even though this film is without a doubt very sentimental and terrible American, it manages to draw up a rather believable picture while staying entertaining. I've watched this film with many of friends, and not everyone has shared my view regarding this being such a good film. But this film is worth seeing, and I can just hope it will affect you in the same pleasant manner as it does in my case. 9/10

It is difficult to imagine a movie which is this bad and yet still fails to offer even unintended laughs. The role Richard Dreyfus plays is so unimaginably annoying, that you pray for commercials to come fast and furiously. I mention commercials only because I KNOW no-one would never admit to paying real $$ to see this shlock.

I loved this movie. Yes, it is true that Sam (Richard Dreyfuss) is an obnoxious and over-the-top salesman. I kept expecting him to be a total jerk in the relationship and break Renata's heart. But he didn't, and I think it is a wonderfully comedic love story. Danny Aiello is great as the stereotypical Italian father. Once Around takes a humorous look at family relationships & dynamic, and how those dynamics are affected by a variety of traditions, cultures and heritage. It also shows the growing up of a daughter, where she finally starts to loosen some of the strings holding her to her family, and starts to live her own life, her own adventure.

I started watching this movie on some movie channel and I kept watching because I knew I had seen it, but I completely forgot about it, and was SHOCKED to find out it was directed by Lasse Hallstrom. I couldn't remember a darn thing about it. (and us movie geeks hate that) Every actor in this movie are all "A" list. And that alone should keep you watching it. It has some tough parts to get through. But I advise you to stick to the end. I also agree that you have to accept (like Her family) Dreyfus's character for who he is, allow it to be part of the plot. If you can make it through the hard parts, you will be rewarded at the end. And remember this was made before Hollywood killed Frank Sinatra by putting a song of his in every darn movie. This is not a GREAT movie, but a darn good one, with a touching ending.

I just watched this movie for the third or fourth time, and it's aged extremely well. Yes, Lasse Hallström shamelessly pushes the limits of sentimentality (heck, it's a trademark with him), but I love this movie even at its sappiest.

Every member of the ensemble is outstanding, particularly Danny Aiello. Richard Dreyfuss creates a character that miraculously manages to be utterly lovable and repulsive at the same time.

It's a film filled with surprises and unforgettable moments. Great script by Malia Scotch Marmo -- layered, intelligent, uncompromising and unconventional. Nine stars!

A romantic comedy that is not really romantic and certainly not very funny. Dreyfuss' character is wholly unsympathetic and his death scene is just silly. A tedious and annoying bore of a movie. As a Bostonian I found the only redeeming feature was the locales. (And anyone who thinks you can stop midway driving over the Longfellow Bridge has never driven over the Longfellow Bridge).

Richard Dreyfuss, in his patented-jerk mode, plays the self-centered, provoking, irritating new husband of family-oriented nice girl Holly Hunter, a woman in her thirties who has never been married before. As a real estate sharpie exuding snake-oil charm, Dreyfuss' character overtakes the picture. Once Hunter, her parents and her sister come to realize that he's nothing but a pain, the film hits a snag and doesn't have anywhere to turn except to sentiment (which doesn't quite play). Malia Scotch Marmo's original screenplay is curiously foul-mouthed and ill-mannered. Director Lasse Hallström tries out different tones within the context of a fairly straightforward familial theme but the results are off-putting. Nice supporting cast, including Gena Rowlands and Danny Aiello as Hunter's mom and dad, but a mostly unpleasant experience. ** from ****

I found this movie/the story mesmerizing. Holly Hunter is exceptional, but then the entire cast is perfect. I don't share the thought that Dreyfuss' character was obnoxious. I think he was just full of life and willing to lay it on the line, all the time, because you only go around once. Hence the title, Once Around.

He didn't play it safe. I had a hard time understanding why the Bella family could not accept him. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain by developing their relationship with him.

I actually felt the family members were envious of Renata and Sam and their love for each other.

It's a great study in family dynamics. It's well-worth watching. I'm going to watch it again, today.

A splendid scenario about love, a masterpiece of play on the part of Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter. This scenario is original because it brings the idea, the topic of a rich, disproportionate, dazzling, invading and perfectly sincere love which happens to submerge all the family of beautiful woman involved, and this is due to the fact they forgot that kind of love they haven't known for a long time; one could love so much, and the joy could be so large, so big, so powerful, that the faith carried in such a love would upset any false life, superficial, timid, afraid way of living. Dreyfus plays this feeling with wonder, while incarnating the perfect American salesman, with the teeth long enough to stripe the floor, although this personality remains of local colour for people who use to be born salesmen. On the other hand, he is a tsunami. And Renata needs some, she takes it. But the family has a hard time taking that. Beautiful intrigue. Beautiful message. To be seen absolutely, don't miss it.