Fresh
Personal Best is likable precisely because it is so unembarrassed.
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine
Personal Best
When you run into yourself you run into feelings you never thought you had.
1982 · 2h 4m · R
Drama
Directed by
Robert Towne
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Personal Best
Overview
Young sprinter Chris Cahill is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner. As Tory and her coach help Chris with her training, the two women form friendship that evolves into a romantic relationship. Their intimacy, however, becomes complicated when Chris' improvement causes them to be competitors for the Olympic team.
Director and cast
- Robert Towne Director
- Mariel Hemingway as Chris Cahill
- Patrice Donnelly as Tory Skinner
- Scott Glenn as Terry Tingloff
- Kenny Moore as Denny Stites
- Jim Moody as Roscoe Travis
- Kari G. Peyton as Penny Brill (as Kari Gosswiller)
- Jodi Anderson as Nadia 'Pooch' Anderson
- Maren Seidler as Tanya
- Martha Watson Cast
- Emily Dole Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
74%
Tomatometer
Rotten
Towne has a love of slow motion that's employed as if he's afraid you might miss one, rippling muscle. Worse than that, when people aren't exercising, they are often talking about exercising.
Variety Staff, Variety
Rotten
The sort of nerve required to produce an excellent screenplay like Chinatown seems to have deserted Towne in this, his directorial debut.
Derek Adams, Time Out
Fresh
This is a very physical movie, one of the healthiest and sweatiest celebrations of physical exertion I can remember.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Rotten
Unless you're fascinated by all of the prettified slow-motion footage of Chris, Tory and the other women athletes, your eye is likely to wander to your watch long before the end.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
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