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I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Show me a marriage without fights, and I'll show you a tragic honeymoon where one of the couple suddenly died. That only takes place on soaps or in film noir where one of the two is killed by the other for their fortune. That isn't the case here. The couple is young and healthy, and they are played by two of the biggest legends of the golden age of stage and screen-Gloria Swanson and Laurence Olivier.Making the unrealistic agreement that they will never quarrel, their goal is quickly proved false. Totally happily married couples are bored eventually, and when Olivier goes out of town, a boating accident during a strange ritual causes him to spend the night in the company of the sexy blonde Genevieve Tobin. Confessing all to his trusting wife, he isn't thrilled by the sudden accusation that she spent the night with an aging admirer. This sends them into divorce court and leads to other accusations, debate and a predictable outcome. If it wasn't for Swanson and Olivier, this might have just been another society drawing room/bedroom comedy of manners. It was the very same year that Garbo turned down Olivier in the male leading role in "Queen Christina", but the still to be discovered British stage star lucked out by winning over Gloria. She would only make one more film before a hiatus, becoming sort of royalty and only making periodic stage appearances before entering screen mortality in "Sunset Boulevard ". Still elegant and beautiful to look at, this is a recent rediscovered classic. Swanson is both sweet and feisty, even singing a bit. For those only familiar with Olivier in drama, he proves himself to be an able comedian. A decent script helps it move along nicely, and it seldom lags. But the premise is a farce in fiction, let alone real life and it takes a bit of swallowing to accept some of the plot devices.

Perfect Understanding (1932) seems to be the movie that everyone loves to hate. But I enjoyed it – right up to the last quarter-hour or so. I thought Gloria Swanson was in fine form, even though super-lovely Genevieve Tobin had the more suitable role. Admittedly, Laurence Olivier tended to be a bit dull at times, though his boat-racing sequence was a genuine thrill. My only real quarrel was with the climactic courtroom scenes which – although produced on a grand scale – were just too outlandishly ridiculous to be taken seriously. I was also a bit disappointed that John Halliday's role disappears about halfway through. It would have made more dramatic sense to save him for the courtroom climax which needed a steadying influence and now comes across as just too absurdly farcical. Halliday would have given these scenes a believable basis in solid reality. I thought this stratagem was so obvious that I actually kept waiting for his re-appearance, but no such luck. Now I wonder what Halliday was doing in the movie at all. Why go to a lot of trouble to introduce a character into the plot, make a big to-do about establishing his credentials and then drop that character when you most need him? It doesn't make sense! And there's yet another player who is elaborately introduced into the action and then simply dropped – although she is still referred to in the dialogue – namely the super-lovely Genevieve Tobin! Well, maybe it was a case of making a film in haste and repenting at leisure. Available on an excellent Cohen DVD.

"Perfect Understanding" is a simply dreadful film--very, very dated, dull and filled with folks you really cannot relate to or like. It also features the rather odd romantic pairing of Gloria Swanson and Laurence Oliver--a pairing that doesn't quite work.The film begins with Swanson singing--something you just don't need to hear unless you are a masochist. Fortunately, Olivier's character didn't love her singing either, though otherwise they play rich folks who have nothing better to do than go to parties, travel the world and talk...a lot. And one of the things they love to talk about is their love for each other. However, Swanson's character is apprehensive to marry, as she's afraid that over time their love will fade. So, they agree to marry and stay married until they begin to argue (ooo, how romantic).The biggest problem about this film is that it was the Depression and folks were out of work. So, such a mannered and dull film involving the rich and lazy seems strange--and hard to enjoy. The characters seemed rather one-dimensional and annoying. In particular, Swanson's acting didn't help, though Olivier did a nice job in spite of the film's many shortcomings. Dull and probably not worth your time.

That's the song Gloria sings over the closing credits; the reverse could be emblematic of the film, a trying-to-be-chic trifle that is nonetheless amusing in its stilted sophistication and odd cinematography. Gloria and Olivier swan about modern London--she's an American interior decorator, he appears to be independently wealthy--and do some rather pre-Code making out before deciding to marry. Misunderstandings quickly pile up as each, though nominally terribly terribly in love with each other, contemplate extramarital affairs. There's also intrigue about his suspicion that she's carrying someone else's child--it's far too racy to have been made in the U.S. at the time, and was filmed in Britain by Gloria's production company. The dialogue strains to be Somerset Maugham witty and the supporting cast is nothing special, though Miles Malleson has a nice bit. Gloria is certainly glamorous and good at eye-batting, and Olivier, playing a spoiled bachelor it's hard to root for, has some charm. Also fun is the hilariously overemphatic musical scoring--every comma seems to be accentuated with a crescendo. Not much of a movie, but an interesting look at two stars at uncomfortable times in their film careers.