Dustin Hoffman is great in this as the impressionable twenty-one year old "Ben" who falls prey to the wiles of the woman immortalised by Simon & Garfunkel. "Mrs Robinson" (Anne Bancroft) is married to the husband of his father's business partner. She is sexy, alluring, sophisticated - and he, well he is just young, naive and horny. Their assignations proceed with few problems but in parallel, his own family are trying to hook him up with her daughter "Elaine" (Katharine Ross). The plot thickens and poor old "Ben" finds him self more and more conflicted, Whom might he choose? Whom might he be allowed to choose? Can their secret stay just that? What, I think, keeps this stylish effort from Mike Nichols relevant fifty-odd years later is it's ability to expose the human, visceral, need for sex, for love, for "more" - without graphically demonstrating it! How characters evolve into more rounded, measured, less "instant" human beings - and Hoffman carries that development role off perfectly. Bancroft is simply a class act. She manages to morph from glamorous wife and mother to seductress and back again with a distinct panache and chic that is both menacing and tantalising in equal measure. You just know that the equilibrium, the balance of power and dependency between the two will change, it has to - but how? That's the question. At what cost - collateral, emotional, personal? The production standards are excellent, the dialogue potent and the chemistry between the initially hapless Hoffman and Bancroft palpable. Of course, a memorable soundtrack helps it along too and if you can see this on a big screen, then it's well worth the effort.
**A good example of a film that was extremely notable in its time, but that is not very relevant today.**
This film is considered by some to be one of the best that US cinema has given us. It is also the film that catapulted to fame the discreet Dustin Hoffman, one of the most consistent and solid actors of his generation. There is no doubt that he deserved the status, in this and other films that followed. However, considering this film as one of the best ever made in the USA doesn't seem fair to me: the film is satisfactory, it was a huge success at the time and had an impact on pop culture, but it has aged poorly, and today it seems like nothing more than a minor work.
The script is, perhaps, the key point to understanding the film: a love triangle between a young man inexperienced with women, a seductive older woman and her young daughter, with whom he falls in love. Released in 1967, in the wake of the Sexual Revolution and a growing challenge to society's values and morals, it is a film with a strong focus on the characters' sexuality and which places women in the role of seductress before a beardless, clumsy male figure. The sexual evocations are discreet in our eyes – we are too used to films with explicit sexual content – but enough to shock and excite people at the time and give the film a huge success at the box office.
However, let's be honest: watching the film today, it's forgettable. I understand the impact it had and the way it was viewed, but it has aged poorly and seems somewhat dated, uninteresting and conventional. On the other hand, there is a huge lack of morality, an implicit nihilism that is only rebutted when Hoffman's character fights for love, finding a meaning that goes beyond carnal attraction, even though the story between these two characters seems totally unbelievable.
Technically, the film has nothing special, and takes on a conventional aspect as it bets all its chips on the story told and the performance of the cast. There is only extra care in some details, such as the excellent soundtrack, with songs by Simon & Garfunkel, made specifically for the film and which are now known even to those who have never seen it. Dustin Hoffman deserved all the attention he got: he carried the film on his back and wisely took advantage of the opportunity to boost his career. However, he is the only interesting actor in the film. Anne Bancroft fulfills what is required of her, but does not go beyond that, and Katherine Ross is not well used.
