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It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Not a perfect flick, but certainly above average. Just a lovely, believable story of boy-girl love transcending class.Good production; crisp writing; good direction and actors who can follow that direction, and then some.The only remonstrance I have is offset by the simplicity of the straight-up story, as it stands: The basic scenario is pretty simple, and I don't consider it a "spoiler" to outline it here: Professional man suffering from personal love-loss meets working class gal 16(?) years his senior. They fall in love. She feels the tension that her class imposes on his social milieu. She splits. He chases her down and takes his class down a notch in a show of good faith. She accepts him back into her life. Happy ending!OK? Simple enough for you? But the saving grace of the flick is that as it proceeds, the writing, direction, and acting are so very strong, that they bear the viewer along like a surging river.So: Check it out.

Max Baron (James Spader) is a successful ad executive in St. Louis. His wife Janey (Maria Pitillo) was killed in a car accident two years ago. He buys 50 burgers from White Palace (White Castle refused to give permission) for his friend Neil (Jason Alexander)'s bachelor party and discovers six empty boxes. He berates Nora Baker (Susan Sarandon) and gets his refund. Later at a bar, Max finds common suffering with Nora who lost her son to leukemia. They start an affair based on their shared losses despite their differences.These are two good performances from great actors of interesting damaged people. The bulk of the interest probably comes from the age difference. For me, more of the interest comes from these sad lives. I would have liked a bit more Sarandon. The hardness of their chemistry is terrific.

This is a straightforward and touching film, and a treat for anyone who enjoys watching actors - especially either of these two - playing small scale scenes recognisable from every day life. They play well together and I suspect the way the director enabled them to work had a hand in this. Unusually, the film is set in St. Louis.The film is often under rated and its central relationship derided as implausible. I believe this is unfair and misses the point of the film.It's a simple tale of class, differing social milieu and how people's social circles influence the choices we make in life. This couple resolve these issues by moving to another city, but not all of us can so readily choose this option.Is their relationship implausible? Well aside from the obvious point that Susan Sarandon (Nora,) looks radiant most of the time, and probably never looked better on film, Spader's character (Max,) is not quite as preppy as he appears, and has more in common with Nora than first meets the eye. There is of course, their shared grief, but Max's mother(Edith,) appears in two scenes, and she is, I believe, a key to understanding their relationship.Edith has a Brooklyn type accent which points to Max having something of a working class background himself, and further, he has ambivalent feelings towards her - for one thing, she is uncomfortable in formal social settings. I think these suggest that Max's attraction to Nora is not nearly as left field as it may appear. Further, I see a facial similarity between the actors, especially around the eyes and mouth, which social psychologists often cite as a predictor of couple attraction.As to whether the film is any good...? I think it portrays the joys, tensions and compromises of the early stages of a relationship very convincingly. They have a lot of sex, they have rows, they make up, they meet each other's friends, they annoy each other, they work their way through issues. It's not War and Peace, but it does reflect every day life quite consonantly. It has some inspired comic touches - "the sandwich" springs to mind - a solid chemistry between the two stars, and some touching pieces of observation such as when Max tenderly explores Nora's belongings reminiscently of Garbo in Queen Christina.If you fancy a touching love story, well acted, with stand back and don't get in the way direction, and with gentle undercurrents of social commentary, then The White Palace is worth a shot. If you check the voting for it, you'll see that quite a few people agree with me!

Spader is quite solid and Sarandon terrific in a reversal of what most French movies are about: a young man goes out with an older woman (the difference being that in French movies the older man is five-to-ten times older than his Lolita-like object of desire, whereas Sarandon is not much older, by comparison, than Spader). This is a romantic drama, and considering this the film is pretty solid; certainly not dull, but predictable in spots. Plus, we have Brennan's annoying clairvoyance - she turns out not to be a fraud! But, I guess they had to throw in a bit of that psychic nonsense to please the middle-aged female viewers. (In fact, there are plenty of movies catering to male fantasies, so here's a middle-aged-women fantasy movie.) A very silly scene was the last one in which Spader smothers Sarandon the waitress in a crowded restaurant, followed by cheers and applause by the guests. Sarandon, once again, shows her breasts, which is always a nice thing. I have to add, though, that she isn't intelligent enough to play even a MacDonalds worker, so this movie falls under "fantasy" as well.If you're interested in reading my biographies of Susan Sarandon and other Hollywood intellectuals, contact me by e-mail.