Good cast, weak script, uninspired direction
Marriage with its ups and downs has been a popular subject in movies since the silent days. Directors have explored the many-faceted institution seriously and comically in films ranging in tone from “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” to “Father of the Bride.” “The Last Married Couple in America” tries to wring comedy from the fragile state of wedded bliss and the difficulty of navigating its unpredictability and peculiarities.<br /><br />Jeff and Mari Thompson (George Segal, Natalie Wood) have a regular touch football game with several other couples, all apparently happily married. But one by one, the couples separate and head for divorce. This astonishes and perplexes Jeff and Mari. Pondering the trend spreading through their affluent social community at an alarming rate, they examine their own marriage and wonder why they seem the exception rather than the rule. They’re happy.<br /><br />Segal plays Jeff as bewildered, disbelieving, and self-doubting, alternately projecting a schoolboy innocence and a Masters & Johnson inquisitiveness about sex and relationships. He radiates sympathy combined with eye-opening shock as he listens to friend Marv (Richard Benjamin) first boast of his freedom and later whine about his misery. But his line delivery doesn’t change much from wide-eyed astonishment.<br /><br />Natalie Wood as Mari displays more of a range, conveying kittenish affection, surprise, annoyance, disappointment, and rage. Mari has every reason to be happy, yet she obsessively examines why she is happy. The viewer can see it even if she can’t. She has a successful, loving husband, three young children, a beautiful home, and she looks great.<br /><br />The arguments that arise and escalate between Jeff and Mari emanate more from the writer’s head than from the couple’s relationship and their banter seems contrived. At a tense moment, Mari uncharacteristically utters a four-letter epithet that seems to have been tossed in mostly for shock value.<br /><br />Conveniently, Jeff runs into old high school friend Walter Holmes (Dom DeLuise) who, it turns out, has become a porn actor to supplement his income as plumber. His new wife, he tells Jeff, is a sex worker. DeLuise is naturally funny and offers some truly amusing scenes, but the script is an insurmountable obstacle for everyone else. Walter later asks Jeff for permission to hold a birthday party for his wife at Jeff’s house since his own place is too small. Walter’s circle of porn movie and hooker pals combined with the Thompsons’ bourgeois friends should offer some last-act laughs, but the scene just dies.<br /><br />Valerie Harper (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”) plays Barbara, a recently divorced predator who has her sights set on Jeff and is hardly subtle about making her intentions known. She visits his office to announce, unembarrassedly, that she’d love to get him in bed. He manages to resist her advances, only to run into her again after commiserating with his unhappy friend Marv. This time, he succumbs and they end up at a cheap motel.<br /><br />Bob Dishy plays Howard, a divorce lawyer who represents only women so he can seduce them. He tries coming on to Mari when he senses her marriage might be shaky. Dishy is best playing a nebbish, not a ladies’ man, and the scene falls flat.<br /><br />The script by John Herman Shaner is built on one preposterous premise after another. The film feels like an extended sit com with gags about sex, fidelity, womanizing, aggressive females, and even a social disease — most of which come off as smarmy rather than funny. The basic premise is unconvincing. The Thompsons are happy, but the script insists they examine why they haven’t beaten a path to divorce lawyers.<br /><br />Director Gilbert Cates fails to milk most of the film’s episodes for full comic effect. The party at the end of the film, for instance, is meant to be the climax as well as a comic centerpiece, but it’s staged with such indifference that even the partygoers look bored. The chemistry between Segal and Wood is inconsistent. In some scenes, they look like a real couple; in others, they’re delivering lines with little emotional connection. Cates should have watched a few Cary Grant comedies to see how comic “business” amplifies dialogue and adds characterization.<br /><br />Bonus materials on the R-rated Blu-ray release include an audio commentary and several theatrical trailers.<br /><br />“The Last Married Couple in America” portrays its characters as upscale, intelligent individuals who have achieved financial security, raised a family, live in a lovely home, and have an active social life. But it treats those characters like joke machines in a bad TV sitcom. If the humor worked, that would be acceptable dramatic license. But failing to portray these folks realistically, putting them in contrived situations, and offering only tepid, intermittent humor, the movie doesn’t have much to recommend it. Segal and Wood try their best but are hobbled by a mundane script and an uninspired director.
The movie title "The Last Married Couple in America," available on Movies & TV, has received an average rating of 4.4 from 67 reviewers. 
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This title falls under the categories of Movies & TV, Featured Categories, Blu-ray and Comedy. 
The additional details include the following in key-value format :
 {"MPAA rating": "R (Restricted)", "Product Dimensions": "5.35 x 6.73 x 0.63 inches; 5.92 Ounces", "Item model number": "BRK25191", "Director": "Gilbert Cates", "Media Format": "Anamorphic, NTSC", "Run time": "1 hour and 43 minutes", "Release date": "May 4, 2021", "Actors": "Natalie Wood, George Segal, Richard Benjamin, Valerie Harper, Dom DeLuise", "Studio": "Kl Studio Classics", "Country of Origin": "USA", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : With seemingly all of their peers having wound up in divorce court, L.A. couple Jeff and Mari Thomson (George Segal, Natalie Wood) take pride in still being together and happy. But will their need to prove the health of their union-to themselves as well as others-be what sends it on the rocks? Sly study of contemporary mores co-stars Valerie Harper, Richard Benjamin, Dom DeLuise, Allan Arbus. 103 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: English; Subtitles: English; audio commentary; theatrical trailer..