Divorce Meet a Murder

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MOVIE REVIEWS
Nadine
–

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Romance
Year Released: 1987, 2026 Blu-ray
Runtime: 1h 23m
Director: Robert Benton
Writer: Robert Benton
Cast: Kim Basinger, Jeff Bridges, Rip Torn, Gwen Verdon, Glenne Headly, Jerry Stiller
Where to Watch: available September 29, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: www.moviesunlimited.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges spend much of NADINE arguing like two people who know exactly which buttons to push because they’ve been pressing them for years. That relationship is far more entertaining than the murder, land scheme, or criminals chasing them, and Robert Benton seems to understand that almost immediately. The crime plot gives Nadine and Vernon somewhere to run, but their broken marriage is what gives the movie a reason to keep following them.

Set in 1954 Austin, Texas, the story begins with Nadine Hightower (Basinger) attempting to retrieve some revealing photographs she regrets posing for. She arrives at photographer Raymond Escobar’s studio expecting an uncomfortable conversation and instead witnesses his murder, setting off a series of increasingly bad decisions. Somewhere in the confusion, Nadine ends up with documents connected to a valuable and highly illegal land deal.

Her estranged husband Vernon (Bridges) gets pulled into the situation almost immediately. Their marriage is already on its way toward divorce, and Vernon’s struggling business hasn’t exactly helped convince Nadine that she should reconsider. Once he realizes the stolen documents could be worth serious money, however, what began as Nadine trying to clean up one embarrassing mistake turns into both of them running from people considerably more dangerous than either anticipated.

The mechanics of that plot aren't especially complicated, and they're rarely the reason NADINE is enjoyable. Benton keeps introducing guns, shady business people, police trouble, and narrow escapes. Still, the movie has the relaxed attitude of something much more interested in watching Basinger and Bridges bicker their way through danger. There's an old-fashioned screwball quality to their relationship, even when the movie around them isn't consistently funny enough to fully earn that comparison.

Basinger is the more immediately energetic half of the pair. Nadine can be impulsive, stubborn, and spectacularly bad at thinking through the next five minutes, yet Basinger never plays her as stupid. She understands when Nadine is manipulating Vernon, when she's genuinely frightened, and when irritation is covering up the inconvenient fact that she still cares about the man she's planning to leave.

That distinction makes the character much easier to enjoy. A lesser version of NADINE could've turned its title character into a collection of blonde jokes and then expected Basinger's appearance to do the rest. Benton gives her enough agency to keep that from happening, and Basinger attacks the character's contradictions without trying to sand them down into something more conventionally likable.

Bridges takes the opposite route. Vernon carries himself with the confidence of a guy who's certain his next plan will solve whatever problem the previous plan created, and Bridges makes that irresponsibility strangely appealing. He doesn't need to compete with Basinger's larger reactions because much of the comedy comes from Vernon remaining relatively calm while Nadine correctly points out how ridiculous everything has become.

Together, they're much better than either character would be separately. The familiarity of their arguments makes the marriage believable even when the crime story gets increasingly silly, and small flashes of affection keep slipping through their frustration. You can understand why these two people reached the point of wanting a divorce and, at the same time, understand why completely getting rid of one another might be harder than either wants to admit.

That relationship is also where Benton's original idea survives beneath the comedy. NADINE may function as a light crime caper, but traces of a more serious movie about marriage run through it. Nadine and Vernon don't discover they love each other because someone suddenly delivers an emotional speech. Being chased around Texas simply forces them to spend enough time together to remember qualities they'd stopped noticing while they were busy resenting everything else.

The movie is less successful whenever it moves too far away from them. Rip Torn has plenty of presence as Buford Pope, the businessman determined to recover the documents, and he can make a threat sound funny without making the danger disappear completely. Still, Pope and his operation aren't interesting enough to carry long sections of the movie on their own, leaving the criminal conspiracy feeling more functional than memorable.

Jerry Stiller has a brief but amusing role as Escobar, while Gwen Verdon and Glenne Headly add personality around the edges of the story. This is an unusually recognizable supporting cast for something that feels so deliberately small, though Benton doesn't always find enough for everybody to do. Most of the supporting characters exist to push Nadine and Vernon toward the next complication rather than develop stories of their own.

The period setting is considerably more rewarding. NADINE doesn't treat 1954 Texas like an excuse to parade vintage cars past the camera every thirty seconds, even though those details are everywhere. The clothes, businesses, furnishings, and streets create a convincing sense of place without constantly demanding recognition for the effort.

The photography also has an appealing warmth. Austin doesn't look like a giant studio recreation of the 1950s, and the smaller rooms and businesses give the movie the intimate scale its marriage story needs. Even when guns enter the equation, NADINE rarely loses the feeling that these are ordinary people who wandered into a story much bigger than what they were prepared to handle.

That easygoing quality is both an advantage and the movie's biggest problem. For something built around murder, stolen documents, armed criminals, and multiple chases, NADINE can feel strangely low-energy. Benton never develops the kind of comic momentum that could turn one mistake into another until the entire thing becomes uncontrollably funny.

The laughs arrive individually instead. A line lands, Basinger gives Bridges a look that says more than the dialogue, or Vernon comes up with another questionable plan, and then the movie settles back down again. I enjoyed spending time with the characters, but I rarely felt like the caper itself was building toward anything particularly exciting.

The final portion exposes that problem most clearly. Once the story leans harder into shootouts, double-crosses, and physical danger, the lightness that served the relationship doesn't always carry over to the action. Benton wants the movie to stay playful even as the stakes rise, and those two sides occasionally feel like they're moving at different speeds.

NADINE is charming enough that I had a good time with it, but nearly all of that goodwill comes from Basinger and Bridges rather than the mystery surrounding them. Give this exact crime story to actors without their chemistry, and there's not a whole lot left demanding attention.

Mill Creek bringing NADINE to Blu-ray on September 29 is still welcome, particularly with the release dressed in the company's retro VHS-style packaging. This is exactly the kind of smaller studio movie that could easily remain buried in an older catalog, and the throwback presentation fits a title that probably feels more at home as something discovered on a video-store shelf than as a heavily promoted prestige release.

The film itself has aged into an interesting middle ground. It's too slight to qualify as some major forgotten Robert Benton classic, but it's also better than its fairly muted reputation might suggest. Basinger is funny without becoming a caricature, Bridges makes Vernon's questionable judgment easy to forgive, and their chemistry gives a routine crime story considerably more personality than the plot earns on its own.

NADINE ultimately works because the movie understands that the documents everyone is trying to steal aren't nearly as important as the couple carrying them. Murder and corruption may be chasing Nadine and Vernon across Texas, but the real question is whether spending all that time running together reminds them why they ended up together in the first place. The answer isn't particularly surprising, yet Basinger and Bridges make getting there enjoyable enough to justify the detour.

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[photo courtesy of MOVIES UNLIMITED, ALLIANCE HOME ENTERTAINMENT, MILL CREEK]

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