Ms Kathleen's Movie Review

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It’s a story about a young man returning home after being away for four years at college on the opposite coast. He returns home with no apparent goals in mind, no direction and is quite listless about how he spends his time. Many have written about the supposed social statements this film introduced to a growing discontented group of young adults in the 1960’s. The main character, Benjamin Braddock is the poster child for the innocent, exploited and often misdirected youth who feels betrayed and corrupted by the older generation who are only interested in material possessions.

While spending his summer lazing around his parent’s pool and attending social functions that only his parents and their friends attend, Benjamin is seduced by the wife of his father’s business partner, Mrs. Robinson. By playing it coy and pretending she only needs Benjamin for a ride home Mrs. Robinson gets him alone in her house. It is there she makes fast tracks getting at the heart of what she really wants from Benjamin.

So we see this confident, self-assured, married woman mixed up with a confused, disoriented, inadequate young man. Why? The reasons are endless. She wasn’t getting what she needed from her middle-aged, heavy-drinking, possibly disloyal husband. He was an inadequate lover. He was a controlling husband and father who cared only about his selfish needs and desires. After all, Mrs. Robinson was left at the party all alone only to have to find a ride home with Benjamin.