Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is a savage 1969 satire about the sexual revolution that has a similar tone to The Graduate, I found, about a couple that has a life-changing experience in a mountain retreat, and returns with a more open relationship by which their friends (the second couple in the title) are shocked. Columbo villain Robert Culp and Natalie Wood at her most resplendent are really the targets of the satire, eliciting laughs more than understanding from their audience both in and out of the movie. The characters are acted about as well as they can be, but are so extreme in their conversion, they're really a pastiche of the trend their following. Ted and Alice, Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon, are real people faced with this paradigm shift, rejecting it, being drawn to it, flirting with it... So when all four friends find just how far is too far, it feels very real (no matter the direction's soft stylistic touches). Open relationships are not for everyone. They have limits. They may be healthy or toxic. The movie doesn't really make a stand either way. The subject matter is too complicated for that, and so the film maker approaches it with as much bemusement and open-mindedness as he can muster, much like the characters in the story.

funny and warm, and doesn't shy away from the negative consequences of free love. a perceptive and enjoyable film with some terrific performances.

Indeed a great screenplay, dialogue in particular