When Patricia Heaton swoons
and sighs, "I'm a sucker
for romance," she isn't
the only one giving in
against her better judgment.
Her TNT remake of Neil Simon's romantic
comedy "The Goodbye
Girl" creaks and wobbles
in a bunch of ways, and in the
end, none of it matters. Love
conquers all.
The "Everybody Loves
Raymond" star takes over
for 1977 Oscar nominee Marsha Mason,
with journeyman Jeff Daniels
taking on the role that won
Richard Dreyfuss an Oscar.
The latter task might seem
tougher - Dreyfuss' eccentric
charm made him a force of
nature - but the woman's side
of this equation may be the
more challenging. Having
just been deserted by her
live-in actor boyfriend,
Heaton's character is a
wounded animal who lashes out
even when she's being offered
help, continually whining,
snarling and employing her
10-year-old daughter as a psychological
weapon. It wasn't such a pretty
picture in the 1970s, and after
25 years of further female
empowerment, all that poor-me
self-pity can feel even less
sympathetic.
That's where Heaton's backbone
comes in. She demonstrates it
weekly in her Emmy-winning CBS sitcom role.
It's clear she will indeed buck
up to survive whatever comes her way, and
probably sooner than later. If
anything, the actress' gumption could
threaten to upset the balance
of acerbic banter that Simon has adapted essentially
wholesale here from his '70s
battle of wits.
That's where Daniels more
conventional leading-man appeal
comes in. He lacks Dreyfuss'
rapier edge, which early on
makes him seem a less
intriguing combatant but
eventually ensures those
personal skirmishes don't get
too bloody for comfort. He
wisely doesn't try to one-up
Dreyfuss' more over-the-top
moments. (Remember him yanking
the panties down off the
bathroom drying rod, a moment
immortalized by John Belushi's
"Saturday Night Live"
skewer.) Daniels simply settles
into his own less flashy yet
emotively assured actor
portrayal.
Simon's language feels more
crucial this time, sometimes
too crucial, too
elaborately constructed for the
offhand zingers these two are
supposed to be flinging as reluctant New York
apartment mates, forced
together by her wayward ex'
duplicity. The situational
settings, too, are
ultra-convenient, right out of some
old Hollywood script. It's a
rainy night whenever a
drenching would make a point;
there's that oh-so-handy
rooftop for a romantic
evening's pas de deux; and
Daniels even manages to make a
dramatic entrance via fire
escape. Of course, it's all
"yes, but." Every
time we sense we're being
conned by Simon and director
Richard Benjamin, they unleash
some emotional bullseye between
their two would-be lovers,
dissolving us into sucker mush.
This "Goodbye Girl"
update actually tries to be a
flashback - back to those
classic screwball comedies,
where everything dovetails
perfectly to make
our warriors of amour cross
paths and uncross their
romantic signals. These
two stars are old pros
enough to play it for all
it's worth, and then some.
They conquer all.
