BEFORE: As with John Candy, I've seen the vast majority of Steve Martin's films, though I've avoided the "Father of the Bride", "Cheaper By the Dozen" and "Pink Panther" franchises. Sorry, but Peter Sellers WAS Inspector Clouseau, and I accept no substitutes. Somehow this Steve Martin film has eluded me, until now...
THE PLOT: A writer for a greeting card company learns the true meaning of loneliness when he comes home to find his girlfriend in bed with another man.
AFTER: Well, it sort of works as a snapshot of dating in the early 1980's, before there was a Facebook or a Match.com, or any internet at all, really. So people actually had to meet each other in bars, or at parties, or at lunch counters. Unfortunately, most of the jokes about swinging singles and answering machines and writing phone numbers on napkins seem really outdated now.
Also, I didn't find the jokes about men jumping off the Manhattan bridge or shouting their ex-lovers' names from the rooftops to be all that funny. I know it's an exaggeration, but it just seems sort of mean-spirited to laugh at these characters when they're down.
Also starring Charles Grodin, Judith Ivey, with cameos from Steve Lawrence, Merv Griffin, and Dr. Joyce Brothers.
RATING: 3 out of 10 ferns
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