The Goodbye Girl Remake

TNT is remaking The Goodbye Girl, one of my favorite movies. This movie is a touchstone for my family--we all loved the song, I totally identified with Quinn Cummings (and just found out through imdb that she's only a few months older than I am) and my mother and I still quote the "I got a lawyer acquaintance--" "Oh God. You're an actor" exchange. It's such a great, late '70s in New York City movie--why are they remaking it? There's no way they can improve that movie, and I have no idea how they're going to deal with the whole "Richard III as a flaming fag" schtick in the original. It's not the same joke that it was in 1977--that joke has been done to death by now (this was also a weakness when they musicalized the movie for Broadway a few years ago).

Quinn Cummings. Such a cutie in that movie, with her long brown ponytails and her big eyes.

The Goodbye Girl Remake (II)

Okay, The Goodbye Girl remake is not as hateable as I'd feared. Hallie Eisenberg is enjoyable enough, albeit a little too obviously cute with the dimples and the curly hair. Patricia Heaton is competent, no more, and Jeff Daniels is better than I thought he'd be. But still--no one is as good as their original counterpart, and the whole project is just--unnecessary.

D'Agostino's is not where budget-conscious people shop, and there are few to no grocery stores in NYC where two grocery carts can fit side by side in an aisle. The mugging scene just doesn't work. This is not that New York. People do not get mugged in broad daylight in the Village these days--in that neighborhood more than most it would be difficult to make a getaway by car. And starving actors (Elliot's never worked in NYC, and Tony has only done Off-Off Broadway) and dancers cannot afford the palatial Village apartment shown in the remake. The place is HUGE. For that matter, why does Elliott sublet a two-bedroom apartment? Off Broadway doesn't pay that well, either. And why does Paula give up work of any kind, after hooking up with Tony? Three people absolutely cannot live in the Village on one starving actor's meager and intermittent pay. The NYC economy in '77 was different because it wasn't such a nice place to live then. But now everything is so much more expensive in real dollars.

I will say, the excessive "Neil Simon"ness of the original has been toned down, to good effect. That is, Daniels and Heaton throw away the lines more. I never liked the self-consciously quippy nature of his works.

Mia a couple of years ago would've been great as Lucy.