Yesterday was Valentine's Day and I hope you were able to be with the one you love or love the one you're with (per a song from the 1970's.)
In the spirit of romance and love and all that other stuff, today's edition of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post is a romantic comedy-drama from 1977 written by Neil Simon called The Goodbye Girl.
At the core of our story are three people.
Elliot Garfield (Richard Deyfus) is a struggling actor with a starring role in a play that will hopefully make his career. Arriving in Manhattan, he has sublet an apartment from an actor friend, Tony DeForrest. Tony has gone off to Italy to make a movie and failed to mention that the apartment is already occupied.
Dancer and divorcee Paula McFadden (Marsha Mason) and her ten-year-old daughter Lucy (Quinn Cummings) have just discoverd that Tony has abandonded them running off to Italy with no prior notice or warning. And Tony certainly left Paula no clue whatsovever that he had subletted the apartment out from under her.
Elliot is annoyed that there's a strange woman and her child in his apartment.
Paula is frustrated that there's a strange man in what he insists is his apartment.
Elliot and Paula both concede to let the other stay in the apartment.
Paula doesn't like Ellliot who insists on living his life as if other people aren't in the apartment. He will play his guitar at 3 in the morning if he feels compelled do so.
Elliot doesn't care much for Paula who can be quite stern and demanding.
They're both cynical and neurotic so hey, maybe these crazy kids can make this work? (They also both got screwed over by Tony who we can agree is the real enemy here, right?)
And both are facing career struggles. Paula is getting back in shape to resume her career as a dancer but finding it difficult. She's been away from the stage for awhile and she's not a young ingenue any more.
It's tough out there for a dancer.
Meanwhile, Elliot's starring role in a Broadway play is not the dream he hoped it would be. The play is not Broadway or even off-Broadway but off-off-Broadway. The play is a production of Richard III and Mark the director has a disturbing direction for how he wants Elliot to approach the role of the troubled Shakespearan king. Mark wants Elliot to play RIchard as an exaggerated homosexual stereotype or as Mark puts it, "the queen who wanted to be king."
Elliot knows this approach is a mistake on so many levels including Elliot will be laughed out of town by every New York theater critic. It's either comply with the director's edict or get fired and Elliot can't afford to be fired.
Long story made short: the play opens, critics trash it, Elliot is singled out for his performance (as he feared) and the play closes.
Meanwhile back at the apartment...
Elliot and Paula are still clashing with each other but they are starting to get used to each other's quirks and what not. Elliot has a growing fondness for Lucy and Lucy likes Elliot but is worried that, like Tony, Elliot will abandon them too.
The correlation with Tony isn't helped when Paula and Elliot sleep together.
Elliot loves this demanding dancer.
Paula loves this annoying actor.
Awwwww!!!
But.... Paula shares Lucy's concerns that Elliot will abandon them like Tony did.
Elliot explains how much he cares for Lucy and Paula and that he wouldn't do anything to hurt them.
But...
Guess what?
Elliot lands a role in a film that is shooting in Seattle.
Paula is worried she's going to be the goodbye girl again.
Elliot promises he will return.
And there's a clue that he really means it.
The film became the first romantic comedy to earn $100 million in box-office grosses which is pretty damn good for 1970's money.
Last week I wrote I would be doing a post about a romance between a dancer and the most annoying man in the world. While the introduction to Elliot gives a person who is pushy and prickly, to be fair, Elliot's evolution to a more caring and empathetic being is remarkable. Richard Dreyfuss deserves the 1977 Academy Award for Best Actor he won for his performance as Elliot Garfield. At the time, Dreyfuss was the youngest man (at age 30) to win an Oscar for Best Actor.
Both Mason and Cummings were nominated for Oscars and they had some tough roles to play. While we see Elliot softening in his attitudes towards Paula and Lucy, Paula is more recalcitrant to change, having been betrayed by men who abandoned her.
Quinn Cummings take on Lucy avoids overly sweet and precocious but she feels real and endearing; her scenes with Elliot are especially remarkable. (Quinn is now 57 years old and retired from acting. She is an entrepreneur, author, humorist and inventor.)
While I didn't see The Goodbye Girl for over 4 decades until after it's release, the film was still a part of my life in the '70's with the title song from the film by David Gates in nearly perpetual rotation on Top 40 radio.
Tomorrow, we have another edition of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post and we stay in 1970's.
It's a movie that came out last fall about the origin of Saturday Night Live.
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