Cantankerous retiree Norman Thayer and his conciliatory wife, Ethel, spend summers at their New England vacation home on the shores of idyllic Golden Pond. Their solitude is interrupted when their daughter arrives with her fiance and her son.
Without question, these are major, meaty roles for Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, and there could have been little doubt that the two would work superbly together.
This family melodrama about aging, mortality, and reconciliation is more significant as a social than artistic event: It's the only teaming of Henry Fonda (who won an Oscar) with daughter Jane (who produced it for him) and also with screen icon Hepburn.
When it sometimes seems the whole society has spiritually decamped for Tinseltown, the movie offers the hope that people can come home again-at least for a visit.
