Funny About Love

Rating:
Summary: Gene Wilder Rules In This Romantic Comedy!!
Review: Gene Wilder rules in this romantic comedy also co-starring Christine Lahti.It's a must see!!

Rating:
Summary: Funny About Love
Review: Let me begin by saying that I read the review about this movie by "petershelley". WHOA! How could anyone be so opposite of everything this movie was about!! He does not have a clue and I mean not one about life, people, love, emotion, vulnerability and what it is really all about. This guy is so off base I actually pity what a superficial life he must live. He needs to get off his pedestal and get down here where the real people live. I believe that the performance by Gene Wilder was phenomenol and I could FEEL his pain when his wife walked out the door after their break-up. Knowing Mr. Wilder's history with his departed wife, Gilda Radner, one can only guess at his source of the emotion he exibited in that scene. No wonder I could feel it-I don't think you call that acting. I think it was real. Does Mr. Shelley know what it feels like to want to have a child and not be able to? I think not. If he did he would understand the motivation behind the actions of Duffy in the movie "Funny About Love". ANYONE who has been there knows that you CANNOT intellectualize about such a thing as Mr. Shelley does in his review. IT JUST IS. Christine Lahti's character represents so much of what it is to be a woman these days and try to be everything to everyone and not lose herself and her dreams and ambitions. She very much needed to know that Duffy loved her more than he loved the dream of having a child. That what we have in the here and now is all we really ever have, and even that is temporary. Mary Stuart Masterson of course brought so much humor to a really pretty sad situation. Because of her ability to love unconditionally she was able to give something extraordinary of herself to someone she loved and cared about without having to OWN that person. She was able, out of friendship or love, to fulfill the dream of another human being and complete his life. What greater gift is there on this earth? What an amazing movie, I loved every minute of it and can't believe it has taken it over 10 years to cross my path. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE and of course "Immediate Family" is right up there with it. Alexis Baughman

Rating:
Summary: Funny About Love
Review: Let me begin by saying that I read the review about this movie by "petershelley". WHOA! How could anyone be so opposite of everything this movie was about!! He does not have a clue and I mean not one about life, people, love, emotion, vulnerability and what it is really all about. This guy is so off base I actually pity what a superficial life he must live. He needs to get off his pedestal and get down here where the real people live. I believe that the performance by Gene Wilder was phenomenol and I could FEEL his pain when his wife walked out the door after their break-up. Knowing Mr. Wilder's history with his departed wife, Gilda Radner, one can only guess at his source of the emotion he exibited in that scene. No wonder I could feel it-I don't think you call that acting. I think it was real. Does Mr. Shelley know what it feels like to want to have a child and not be able to? I think not. If he did he would understand the motivation behind the actions of Duffy in the movie "Funny About Love". ANYONE who has been there knows that you CANNOT intellectualize about such a thing as Mr. Shelley does in his review. IT JUST IS. Christine Lahti's character represents so much of what it is to be a woman these days and try to be everything to everyone and not lose herself and her dreams and ambitions. She very much needed to know that Duffy loved her more than he loved the dream of having a child. That what we have in the here and now is all we really ever have, and even that is temporary. Mary Stuart Masterson of course brought so much humor to a really pretty sad situation. Because of her ability to love unconditionally she was able to give something extraordinary of herself to someone she loved and cared about without having to OWN that person. She was able, out of friendship or love, to fulfill the dream of another human being and complete his life. What greater gift is there on this earth? What an amazing movie, I loved every minute of it and can't believe it has taken it over 10 years to cross my path. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE and of course "Immediate Family" is right up there with it. Alexis Baughman

Rating:
Summary: A charming love-hate story!
Review: Star Trek's Dr. Spock aka Leonard Nimoy brings romance film fans a story about love,marriage,infertility and death. Almost three years after directing THREE MEN AND A BABY,Nimoy directs a talented cast such as Gene Wilder,Christine Lahti,Robert Prosky and Mary Stuart Masterson. Duffy Bergman(Wilder) is a cartoonist who appears on Regis and Kathie Lee(Regis Philbin appears as himself and Kathie Lee Gifford is not seen). Duffy meets and falls in love with Meg Lloyd(Lahti) at a booksigning party(Duffy was promoting a book he wrote). Meg is a cook working at various restaurants. Steven Tobolowsky is Dr. Hugo Blatt,a pediatrician. Duffy and Hugo have been best friends since college. Duffy's parents are Emile Thomas "E.T."(Prosky) and Adele(Anne Jackson). Masterson is Daphne Dalillo,a young college student who drives Duffy to her alma mater to give a speech. So Duffy and Meg get married and later try to have children of their own. They pay several visits to a gynecologist named Dr. Benjamin(David Margulies). Duffy even tries to artificially inseminate Meg(he has no luck despite helpful items such as magazines and videotapes). All the conception trouble led to the Bergmans' separation. Tragedy later struck. Adele is killed by a falling stove(the stove was being hoisted to a floor in a multi-story apartment building and was wrapped in rope that broke). Shortly after Adele's death and funeral,E.T. meets and falls in love with Claire Raskin(Susan Ruttan of TV's L.A. Law),a legal aid attorney who helped E.T. with matters regarding Adele's estate. In this scene,E.T. holds a private meeting with Duffy and Vivian,Duffy's sister. E.T. and Claire planned a weekend getaway. Vivian(Jean DeBaer) was shocked that E.T. has found himself a new lovemate just after Adele died. Vivian herself is married with two obnoxious sons. One of them,Roger,is a "little s--t",according to Adele's last scene and Duffy in a later scene. Roger and his brother brought water guns to their grandmother's funeral,playing with them. After Meg and Duffy separate,Duffy goes on a cruise,joining Hugo and his date. After the cruise,Duffy calls Meg,attempting to reconcile with her(Duffy didn't really want children at first but changed his mind after Adele's death). While on the phone with Meg,Duffy is opening mail. He received a letter from a divorce lawyer representing Meg. A very angry Duffy enters the kitchen of a restaurant where Meg is working and tells her he does not want the divorce. "I'm the ship and I have sailed!",angry Meg tells her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Duffy,angrier than before,takes off his trousers and leaves them behind in the kitchen. During the separation,Daphne becomes Duffy's girlfriend. Daphne even becomes pregnant by Duffy! In another scene,Meg and Claire are eating lunch at a public table. Meg told Claire that she(Meg) misses Duffy. Meg said she felt that Duffy was treating her like a "baby machine". Then,there's E.T. taking Claire to be his lawfully wedded second wife. Meg even attended the wedding. Much of the cinnamon-flavored wedding cake wasn't eaten. Meg had opened her new restaurant and she and Duffy finally reconcile. Meg had adopted a toddler which Duffy adores as well. Wilder made one last film following this one,ANOTHER YOU with his three-time co-star Richard Pryor. Wilder and Pryor previously starred in SILVER STREAK,STIR CRAZY and SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL. Wilder himself,at the time of filming this movie,was gradually coping with the loss of his comedienne wife,Gilda Radner. The Saturday Night Live alum succumbed to ovarian cancer at age 42 in May 1989.

Rating:
Summary: Duffy Bergman¿s biological clock is about to go off
Review: This tale of Gene Wilder as a Gary Trudeau-like celebrity political humourist doesn't work as comedy, drama or romance. The screenplay by Norman Steinberg and David Frankel is based on an Esquire article by Bob Greene entitled Convention of the Love Goddesses, which is represented by Wilder speaking at an all female college, declaring that men are "self-pitying" and in awe of women. However this hardly qualifies as feminism, which director Leonard Nimoy amusingly plays with by having Wilder's car pass a line of phallic trees. The only relationship he seems to have with a woman where Wilder isn't controlling or negative is his affair with the much younger Mary Stuart Masterson, and even this is invalidated by his unwillingness to declare his emotion, echoed in Sotto Voce being the name of a featured restaurant.
The main romance here is with Christine Lahti. At first her disinterest in him gives her some strength. She is a waitress at a book signing event of his yet unimpressed with his fame. However wardrobe dress her in Annie Hall-wear and soon she is revealed to be self-consciously weak, which diminishes Lahti's otherwise appealing qualities. The inability of the couple to bear a child sours their relationship, and Lahti bears the teary-eyed guilt.
What is noticable about the treatment is the parallels to be made with Woody Allen movies, specifically Annie Hall and Manhattan. Masterson is a bad driver like Diane Keaton was, and swears the way Keaton did in Manhattan, and the age difference recalls Allen and Mariel Hemmingway. Wilder too gets his share of arrogant jokes at the expense of others, and has Allen's ability to extend his performance beyond the comic persona. His reductive James Cagney imitation is about the only thing I liked.
At first Nimoy paces at a clip, aided by the music score of Miles Goodman, but soon the timing comes to a holt and we're left stranded with people we'd rather do without. It's not encouraging that Anne Jackson as Wilder's acerbic mother is quickly disposed of. The treatment's continued coverage of Lahti telegraphs events, and only the most desperate of romantics can be pleased with the conclusion.