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The Goodbye Girl

2004, Movie, NR, 100 mins

The Goodbye Girl: Review

Though Richard Dreyfuss won an Oscar for his performance in the original film version of THE GOODBYE GIRL (1977), it was never top-drawer Neil Simon — that’s why this made-for-TV retread is both forgivable and forgettable. Aging Broadway chorine Paula McFadden (Patricia Heaton, of TV's Everybody Loves Raymond), once again gambles on love and loses, after banking on stability for herself and her young daughter, Lucy (Hallie Kate Eisenberg), with an up-and-coming actor named Tony. Tony promised to transplant Paula and Lucy to a new life in Los Angeles, but instead accepts a gig in Europe and sublets his apartment right from under her. Already jobless, Paula has no intention of becoming homeless. When Tony’s sub-lessee, Elliot Garfield (Jeff Daniels), arrives, Paula leaves him standing out in the rain. Booked to play Richard the Third, Elliot proposes sharing the living quarters and moves in. Elliot's chanting and casual nudity get on Paula's nerves, but before long the eccentric Elliot has also gotten under her skin. But she's not about to trust another actor, and while fighting a turf war with the belligerent Paula at home, Eliot also battling an untalented director, Mark (Alan Cumming), at work; Mark's insistence on foisting a swishy interpretation on Elliot’s traditional Shakespearean portrayal could sabotage Elliot's career. Elliot flops on stage but scores a hit with Lucy until he gets an out-of-town movie offer out of town: Will he be like all the other opportunists on whom Paula has pinned her hopes? Casting the likable Daniels shifts the balance of sympathy to Elliot and sucks some of the comic juice out of his run-ins with the acerbic Heaton. Even so, the one-liners and the stubborn romanticism of this urban love story are enjoyable. leave a comment --Robert Pardi