The Four Seasons is a 1981 comedy-drama film written by, directed by, and starring Alan Alda, with co-stars Carol Burnett, Len Cariou, Sandy Dennis, Rita Moreno, Jack Weston, and Bess Armstrong.
The plot involves three upper-middle-class married couples from New York — Jack and Kate (Alda and Burnett), Nick and Anne (Cariou and Dennis), and Danny and Claudia (Weston and Moreno) — who've built a pattern of taking four vacations together every year, once per season. The routine takes on a sour note when Nick divorces Anne after 21 years of marriage and takes up a relationship with a younger woman, Ginny (Armstrong), leaving the others to wonder if they're betraying their friend by accepting the new woman into their circle.
Alda's feature directorial debut,note the film is also notable for its soundtrack featuring the four concerti by Antonio Vivaldi, from which it takes its name.
This film provides examples of:
- Bourgeois Bohemian: All three couples are candidates, being upper middle class couples, some with artistic careers.
- Brutal Honesty: Jack is a believer in this, even when some things are best left alone.
- Disaster Dominoes: Happens in both the Summer and Winter "seasons":
- Attempting to raise the stuck anchor on the sailboat leads to the anchor rope snapping, the front railing going with it, and the sailboat being stranded on a sand bar.
- Danny breaks through the ice running after Ginny, who had fled the cabin in anger over how she's treated by the other couples. The others rescue him with a rope tied to his Mercedes...which falls through the ice right after he's rescued.
- Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: Nick goes through this, divorcing his wife to marry a younger woman.
- Hypochondria: Danny feels himself closer to death and fearing every ache and ailment, to the point of being afraid of the elastic in his underwear.
- I Didn't Tell You Because You'd Be Unhappy: During the autumn scene, Kate confesses that she hates the vacations the couples go on, even though she always plans them.
- Mid-Life Crisis Car: Danny's Mercedes.
- The Missus and the Ex: The Autumn sequence sees Anne arrive for parents' weekend in addition to Nick and Ginny. Awkwardness ensues.
- Musical Theme Naming: The film takes its name from the musical suite by Antonio Vivaldi.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Ginny calls the other couples out for treating her this way, accusing them of seeing an "blank spot where Annie used to be".
- Neat Freak: Danny, who refuses to let anyone eat in his car in case it leaves crumbs.
- Pass the Popcorn: While the adults fight at the dinner in the "fall" season, their daughters just silently eat and enjoy the show.
- The Precious, Precious Car: Danny and his Mercedes, which ends up at the bottom of a lake.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The famous musical suite that inspires the film's name is heard throughout, alongside other Vivaldi pieces.
- Real Men Cook: The first vacation starts with Jack, Nick, and Danny cooking an elaborate Chinese dinner - and filling the kitchen with smoke in the process.
- Scenery Porn: All four "seasons", but especially the scenes set in the US Virgin Islands.
- The Scrooge: Danny meticulously calculates everyone's expenses on vacation so that everyone pays their share.
- Seasonal Baggage: Nick leaves his wife Anne after the spring trip and marries the much younger Ginny, causing tension over the summer, fall, and winter vacations.
- Skinny Dipping: Nick and Ginny try it, after which Claudia and Danny follow suit.
- Team Mom: Kate and Jack are the alpha couple of the three.
- Think Unsexy Thoughts: In an attempt to distract themselves from the excessive noises of Danny and his new partner Ginny, Jack and Kate read about inflation and its effect on the economy - before descending into giggling fits.
- Visit by Divorced Dad: Nick during parents' weekend in Connecticut. The yet-to-be-finalized divorce has taken a toll on his daughter Lisa, who has become withdrawn and isolated. Nick tries to cheer her up, with predictably tepid results.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The main characters vacation together throughout the year, but as the months roll by it's increasingly obvious that none of them can stand each other.
