This movie is sometimes amusing and contains some good acting by Richard Dreyfuss and Quinn Cummings, but it's also very annoying. Dreyfuss is good at doing this type of character but he also seems rather manic; he, Dreyfuss, is in fact bi-polar, which may account in part for this. Dreyfuss also had a rather serious problem with cocaine, and that too may in part account for his frenetic performance. Marsha Mason is totally irritating; no wonder all the men she gets involved with leave her! This movie derives part of its charm from the fact that the two romantic leads are not particularly young, attractive or likable, which is unusual for a romantic comedy. But that makes it harder for the view to feel sympathetic for the two; I quite frankly didn't give a hoot whether or not they got together or stayed together. And although the ending implies that Eliot is so smitten with Paula that he will never leave her, I tend to think that eventually he will get tired of this needy, immature woman. That little speech she gives him towards the end about how she's "grown up" doesn't ring one bit true, especially in light of what she does a little later, that is, standing out on the fire escape in the pouring rain in a sheer nightgown clutching his guitar and screaming "I LOVE YOU"! That kind of behavior you would expect from a lovesick teenager not a 33 year old woman who's "grown up". Overall I would say that this a rather silly diversion of a movie. And Dreyfuss did NOT deserve an Oscar for this. Richard Burton should have won that year.
Review of The Goodbye Girl
