The Goodbye Girl.

Review #1455: The Goodbye Girl.

Cast: 
Richard Dreyfuss (Elliot Garfield), Marsha Mason (Paula McFadden), Quinn Cummings (Lucy McFadden), Paul Benedict (Mark), Barbara Rhoades (Donna), Theresa Merritt (Mrs. Crosby), Michael Shawn (Ronnie), Patricia Pearcy (Rhonda), and Nicol Williamson (Oliver Fry) Directed by Herbert Ross (#244 - The Sunshine Boys)

Review: 
"I think Herb Ross is the best director I've worked with in films. The others just don't understand my material as well."

"I always knew I was going to be an actor and that was that - no doubts, no uncertainties, no changing my mind. And that was when I was like, nine, ten. And it never changed."

It's good to make a comedy-drama when you've got the hands to make something meaningful. The film was written by Neil Simon and directed by Herbert Ross, who had collaborated with Simon in a group of films and plays that went from The Sunshine Boys (1975) to Max Dugan Returns (1983). Ross was a dancer-turned-choreographer-turned director, while Simon was a playwright and screenwriter that had started his line of work with radio before moving to TV with Your Show of Shows (1950-54), plays with Come Blow Your Horn (1961), and film with After the Fox (1966). Both lead actors had already had their moment in the sun rise in the decade in the year of 1973, starting with Dreyfuss in a quick rise from TV to American Graffiti while Mason made her feature debut in Blume in Love that led to work in theater with Simon (along with marriage after meeting during auditions for The Good Doctor). Simon had originally written a script named "Bogart Slept Here", which would have had Mike Nichols direct and Robert De Niro star in a film about the changes in an struggling actor's life after becoming a star. Production on that lasted just a week before De Niro was found to not being suited for the comedic aspects (with Nichols following later on), and Simon reportedly re-wrote the script in a span of six weeks.

For 110 minutes, one is presented with a fairly neat package of comedy and drama, rolling along with a few neat lines and some quirk-laced characters that interact with some zip to make a romance that paints its corners with fair conviction and enough moments to make it worth it. While it does prove awkward at times, Dreyfuss and Mason do eventually make things worth it in the build to establish interesting chemistry that makes the second half resonate with interest over the establishing half. Dreyfuss grows on you very quickly, having a spark of sensitivity and energy that inspires plenty of curiosity with good timing that drives as a bright charmer, whether that means trying to act in a play to his best or drunkenly reading scathing reviews of said play. Mason does well with what she is given, straight-laced but not too unapproachable for banter with Dreyfus or with Cummings, who makes for a fine family pairing to watch. The supporting cast is fine, with Benedict making for a worthy eccentric to see play out in his moments on screen, since the Richard III production scenes (based on an actual production that Mason had a part in) are generally the most amusing sequences in the film anyway, delivering a bit of perspective to what can go in a vision for something (regardless of how strange or funny it might seem). On the whole, when the film hits its mark in making you care for these characters, it hits with charm without needing to go overboard in one genre over the other to make a worthy watch for the era.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.