BREEZY: when Frank was 55 it was a very good year

It's a bit of a mystery why Clint Eastwood chose BREEZY as his third film as director.
He'd made an impressive debut behind the camera two years earlier with 'Play Misty For Me' and followed that with 'High Plains Drifter' in 1973. Then came BREEZY.

Where the first two films are stylish, memorable and clearly the product of a director with talent, BREEZY is bland and anonymous. If it wasn't for some nudity on the part of co-star Kay Lenz, the film could easily pass for yet another in the seemingly endless torrent of made-for-tv movies churned out by US television in the 1970s which offered safe harbour to faded film stars.
In this case it's William Holden, playing Frank Harmon, a middle-aged LA real estate agent living a self-imposed lonely life in a funky (in a 70s kind of way) glass walled house buried at the end of a dead end street in the Hollywood Hills.
When we first meet him he's bidding an awkward goodbye to a one-night stand and fending off her not so subtle hints for a sign of commitment. He's been burned by a costly and bitter divorce and has no interest in getting involved with anyone else.
By this point the film's already introduced us to the title character played by Lenz. BREEZY is a 19 year old free spirit filled with naive notions of love and peace, and newly arrived in Los Angeles with nothing more than the clothes on her back and a guitar slung over her shoulder. BREEZY is also saying (a much less awkward) goodbye to a young man with whom she's spent the night. It's Eastwood's not so subtle way of telling us that despite the age and socio-economic gap between these two characters they're really not so different.
But of course Frank and BREEZY haven't seen the film so things are far from smooth when they first meet after she invites herself into his house. He rightly surmises she's looking for a handout but her childish innocence and expressions of genuine affection for him are soon starting to crack the crusty old codger's heart, and before long they're locked in an embrace.
Eastwood has nothing new to say about the May - December romance story that unfolds, but he covers familiar ground competently enough and there's a certain pleasure to be had watching former matinee idol Holden play the kind of part that would have been a total no-no for a Hollywood leading man less than 20 years earlier. Frank gets totally hung-up on the age difference, and Eastwood emphasizes it with several very unflattering shots which pick out every line and crag on Holden's well-worn face. I wonder if he ever imagined, 23 years earlier while playing the handsome, desirable young buck lusted after by a grotesque and aging former film star in 'Sunset Boulevard' that one day his career would bring him full circle and he'd be playing the Norma Desmond role.
The counter-culture aspect of the story is now terribly dated and I'm not convinced Eastwood's depiction of hippies was particularly accurate even in 1973. BREEZY herself is little more than a collection of flower child cliches that are more grating than endearing, and it's interesting to speculate on just how long she and Frank would last as a couple before the novelty of her youth and sweetness wore off leaving just an annoying, needy woman-child behind.
Despite the flaws I can't bring myself to dislike this film. With a lesser star than Holden this could have been a rather tedious trudge through tiresomely familiar territory, but his world weary charm and talent won me over and kept me watching. And heck, he even had me hoping for the predictable happy ending!