BigWhiskers
The Goodbye Girl was a classic from the 70's starring Richard Dreyfuss,Marsha Mason and an excellent performance by a young Quinn Cummings. Dreyfuss won an academy award for his portrayal of Elliott Garfield a struggling actor trying to make it ,Mason as a jilted single mom and the delightful Cummings as her precocious daughter Lucy.For starters,why would you need to remake it in the first place and then disgrace it with a run of the mill TV movie of the week?. I'm not a big Jeff Daniels fan but even he deserves better ,he should have turned down the role- He is no Dreyfuss and watching him deliver the same lines is painful. Patricia Heaton(another irritating actress)is basically reprising her Everybody Loves Raymond's Debra character which isn't saying much(Why did she get nominated for a SAG award in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries category?,she was horrible- just goes to show you that SAG voters have bad taste). The little brat who plays Lucy is none other then Hallie Kate Eisenberg - if you don't remember her your excused.She was another sickeningly sweet little girl who did Pepsi commericals when Pepsi was trying to reinvent itself(snore).According to IMDb ,she is just adored by fans and is a regular guest on Leno. I don't watch Leno and could care less. Dakota Fanning could act circles around Eisenberg who has all the cuteness of a wet sponge.
buz_lightyear2000
Maybe my critical eye is not all that it might be or I'm just very generous in my appreciation of films.Either way I have thoroughly enjoyed the 2004 made-for-TV version of Simon's brilliant play.I watched the original on satellite TV and a week later tuned in again,thinking it was the same version, not knowing of the re-make.As it dawned on me,I realised that it was the plot,setting,writing etc which appealed to me more than the acting performances.Jeff and Patricia are fine in the roles, as were Richard and Marsha before them.I see no reason to condemn this re-make and I've no doubt the next version of "The Goodbye Girl" will be just as good as these two.It's a great poignant comedy with wonderful one-liners.
Rich Abdill
I wish I had a better word than "dumb" for this movie, but it's the one that fits. The modern adaptation of The Goodbye Girl was an absolute joke. Besides being a remake in the most literal (and lazy) sense (practically every camera angle was identical to the 1977 original), it had badly casted characters and, due to the use of a practically untouched script, many highly unlikely situations in the modern world.To start, Patricia Heaton is horribly miscast. Her inability to "find a good man" is unbelievable- with her boob job, she should be beating men off with a stick. In addition, she didn't do anything we weren't used to seeing; frankly, I'm tired of seeing Patricia Heaton play the embattled housewife. Very boring.Jeff Daniels was a slightly better fit (less creepy than Richard Dreyfus), but his slooooooow delivery and lackluster performance left much to be desired.Poorly acted and poorly translated to modern times. Stick with the original.
conor_mcg
I found this movie to be both unrealistic and unfunny. Patricia Heaton and Jeff Daniels made for one of the worst couples I've ever seen in a movie. There was poor chemistry between the two. I thought that the idea of these two people falling in love with each other was funnier then the film itself. Having said that, the lone highlight of the film is Hallie Kate Eisenberg as the young Lucy McFadden. She was the funniest aspect of this film. I also found Alan Cumming as the play director to be quite humorous. But the few laughs I had while watching this would not be enough to recommend this to anyone. This movie should not be meant for anything other than a bad Lifetime movie.
AD
