Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice

SYNOPSIS


Paul Mazursky's directorial debut effectively and comically deals with many of the frailties of the sexually enlightened 1960s. Bob (Robert Culp) is a successful documentary filmmaker who takes his wife, Carol (Natalie Wood), to a remote California retreat for group therapy, intending on observing only in the hopes of making a new documentary. However, the hipster couple immediately become involved in the therapy, embracing the groovy ideals of swinging couples, tai chi, emoting, and primal screams. They arrive home full of new feelings and radical ideas about their marriage and successfully amuse their best friends, Ted (Elliott Gould) and Alice (Dyan Cannon), a much straighter version of themselves. However, after Bob and Carol admit, accept, and practically celebrate their extramarital affairs, Ted and Alice are so shocked by their liberal standpoint that Alice must seek psychiatric treatment. In therapy, however, Alice realizes her own illicit desires. After articulating them to her husband, the foursome head to Las Vegas in an attempt to become more than just friends in a far-out finale, famous for its menage à quatre theme. This stylish satire is a simultaneously poignant and amusing account of radical sexual experimentation, rampant with Nehru jackets, Pucci bikinis, love beads, and psychedelic parties.

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