Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

HotToastyRag Did you watch Strangers When We Meet? Kirk Douglas plays a married man, with no real reason to stray, who has an affair with Kim Novak. If you haven't, and you're thinking of watching The Arrangement, just watch the Kim Novak one instead. It's much better, and you'll get your Kirk Douglas fix. In this one, Kirk is married to Deborah Kerr, and just like before, he's successful in business, has lots of friends, a nice looking wife, and a beautiful house. And yet, in a mid-life crisis, or boredom, or whatever, he has an affair with Faye Dunaway.I don't really know why Faye Dunaway was continually cast in sex symbol roles; she's nice looking, but not particularly attractive. She always seems very untrustworthy to me, which is not an attractive quality-especially if you're going to have an affair with her and hope your wife doesn't find out! Anyway, since this film was made nine years after its competitor, there are more raunchy sex and nude scenes included, rather than just a few steamy kisses with Kim Novak. I don't like this movie, in part because the story is overdone, and in part because Elia Kazan's directing is purposely strange and outlandish, like he was trying to prepare the audience for the craziness of the 1970s. There are countless other infidelity movies for you to choose from, and I suggest you do so.DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not your friend. The camera often tilts, swirls, or zooms without warning, and it will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

MartinHafer Eddie Anderson (Kirk Douglas) is rich, successful and losing his mind. You can tell this because as he's driving to work in his fancy convertible, he deliberately smashes his car--nearly killing him. Following this, he's distant and uncommunicative--slipping deeper and deeper into a fantasy world. He's dreaming of his lover (Faye Dunaway)--a woman who left him a year and a half ago. In the meantime, his wife (Deborah Kerr) is beside herself--she has no idea what to do. Through the course of the film, you see a man on the edge of sanity--a man having perhaps the world's world mid-life crisis. Because he's reached this age and hates who he is and what he's become--that's why this crisis is so intense.While I felt this was a painful and unpleasant film (much of it because you don't like ANYONE in the film--especially the leading man), this is not to say the picture is without merit or style. Director Elia Kazan (from his novel) creates a bizarre portrait of a man in crisis--and does it in very, very strange and creative ways. Very often through the course of the film, it becomes more and more difficult to determine what is real and what is not--and Douglas' character has conversations with himself (using a split screen), walking back in time to his childhood and examining his relationship with his parents and even runs around in the buff! It's all very artsy, surreal and strange--though not exactly something I enjoyed. It's also very adult and a film that most folks would find challenging at best, though the film would probably speak best to someone in mid-life--someone who is questioning who they are and what they are. Strange to say the least--and more like an Ingmar Bergman film than one you'd expect from Kazan. In fact, I liked the film's style much more than I liked the actual story. Worth seeing as a failed but intriguing experiment.By the way, the clip of the father on the boat coming to America is from another Kazan film, "Amerika, Amerika" (1963).

Kenneth Anderson Being well past middle age, it's fascinating for me to watch films about middle-age that were made during my adolescence. I come to them hoping to get a clearer understanding of themes and concerns that I would have had no idea about at the time. This is not necessarily the case with Elia Kazan's "The Arrangement." At age 60, director and writer Kazan really really thinks he is saying something deep and profound about the emptiness of The American Dream, and attempts to do it with a candor he was not afforded in his earlier (better made) films like "A Streetcar Named Desire " and "Splendor in the Grass." Unfortunately in "The Arrangement" Kazan has the cinematic tools of the Now Generation working like a Trojan to put over a very old-fashioned story. No amount of nudity, quick cutting, raw language and clever juxtapositioning of fantasy and reality can breathe new life into this tired tale of a rich and successful ad exec (Kirk Douglas…his chin doing all the acting) who finds out at age 45 that all he has acquired "Isn't enough." Were this the only film made in the 60s about the subject, perhaps it would have played better, but the late 60's and early 70's were jampacked with one movie after another about the same suburban ennui, and by comparison "The Arrangement" with its rather misogynistic undertones and off-puttingly distasteful protagonist, comes off as REALLY old-fashioned.The pleasures to be found for me now are the reminders of what a beautiful and electric actress Faye Dunaway used to be. As the mistress, Dunaway is saddled with one of those male-fantasy roles of a woman who embodies all that men are drawn to and are afraid of. Cast as "The Redeemer of lost male souls", her character has no job to speak of, no goals, no shattered dreams of her own…she just wants to be wanted by a man. Poor Deborah Kerr is really wonderful as the wife, but she spends most of the film chasing after the disinterested Douglas. Her character speaks of love, but one senses that Kazan thinks she is there for the money and security. Kazan seems unable (or unwilling) to entertain the notion that being the wife or mistress to a self-involved lout may not have been the fulfillment of The American Dream for either of these women either.Though I enjoyed the film's glossy shooting style, period clothes and dated attempts at social commentary (Look! TV's in every room! Look! Commercials are everywhere! Look! The only ethnics these people come into contact with are the hired help!), I about had it when the film attempted to romanticize Douglas' comically loud-mouthed brute of a father. His death is seen as the end to a certain kind of male pride…after seeing him smack around his wife and tear up the son's college application, death seemed like good riddance to me.Though it is painfully clear that "The Arrangement" is Kazan revealing deep deep truths about how he sees life, alas, in 2010 and at middle-age myself, the film had nothing to share with me. It was beautiful to look at but as emotionally superficial as if it were a movie made by the SPIKE TV network.As a final note: Kirk Douglas is an ad exec in this film. As of this writing TV's MAD MEN is a big hit...just goes to show you that the media NEVER seems to tire of using the advertising industry as a metaphor for American artificiality. Zzzzzzz

Lee Eisenberg As I understand it, Elia Kazan's "The Arrangement" has had a mostly negative reputation. Much like Otto Preminger's "Hurry Sundown" - which gave Faye Dunaway an early starring role - it contains a somewhat confusing plot and is more noticeable for its cast. Kirk Douglas plays a businessman going through his midlife crisis and having an affair with a young woman (Dunaway); and his wife (Deborah Kerr) accepts it. But there's more...I feel that I can neither pan this movie nor recommend it. I'm not quite sure what to say about it. I guess that I've seen far better movies, but also far worse movies. If you choose to see it, you probably needn't bother seeing it more than once. Also starring Richard Boone and Harold Gould.