Despite the suggestive title, and the fact that it was produced by Crown-International Pictures (the makers of a number of sleazy drive-in movies), WWTB is far from the sleazefest that you may think it will be. In fact, the movie for the most part seems to be making an effort to be pretty tasteful. This may make the movie sound pretty boring, but the movie manages to be surprisingly entertaining all the same.
To start with, the movie’s male protagonist is not a selfish dirty old man who has the “seven year itch” and lusts after his family’s babysitter. He’s actually made to be pretty sympathetic early on. It’s clearly shown that his marriage has problems, and while some of these problems may come from him, we see that the majority of the strife comes from his wife. (Also, we see that he has been making efforts to improve the relationship, but they haven’t been working.) Then when he subsequently finds himself with the babysitter and starts doing things with her, having an affair seems the last thing on his mind for a considerable amount of time. As well, it’s shown that when the affair starts, the babysitter does as much – if not more – to start the affair.
Also a pleasant surprise is how our protagonist interacts with the friends of his babysitter. He doesn’t talk down to them, seems genuinely interested in them, and freely tries their activities. Also pleasing is that these same young people don’t seem to have a problem with him being much older than them. They are very friendly to him, and gladly teach him of his ways. There is an underlying sweetness to the movie, even with the inevitable nudity and sex that eventually arrives.
In fact, the movie is actually very dialogue-driven for its first half, and while the dialogue may not be up to Shakespeare, it has a natural inviting feeling that keeps your attention. The dialogue makes these characters interesting, giving them quirks that you don’t often see in movies like this. (Such as with the sympathetic junkie seen in the subplot with the wife.)
The movie is far from perfect; the last hour has some clunky and somewhat boring bits, and there seems to be no firm resolution between our protagonist and his babysitter (or with his wife, for that matter.) But I still highly recommend this to those who like drive-in movies. Hard to believe this was directed by “Billy Jack” himself!
