Movie of the Day: January 17, 2003

IMDb Movie of the Day
Before he won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and before he ushered the romantic comedy into a new era with Broadcast News, James L. Brooks wrote the screenplay for 1979's Starting Over. Directed by veteran filmmaker Alan J. Pakula, Starting Over helped redefine movie romance in the era of divorce, and mined the late-70s zeitgeist for laughs amidst the rubble of broken relationships. In the first scene of the film, Phil Potter (Burt Reynolds) is getting the heave-ho from his beautiful but vapidly self-absorbed wife, Jessica (Candice Bergen), who says she needs to forsake their marriage for the benefit of her new career as a singer-songwriter -- a very bad singer-songwriter. Terrified at the prospect of dating, Phil joins a support group for divorced men, spends lots of time with his married brother (Charles Durning), and ultimately finds his romantic spark reignited by Marilyn (Jill Clayburgh), a kindergarten teacher who's as neurotic and wary as he is. Just when they seem to get their bearings together, though, in waltzes Jessica, intent on wooing Phil back, with her self-penned ballads no less. Though it seems a little dated now (let's not get started on the furniture), Starting Over provided Reynolds with a stellar opportunity to break out of his action-man persona, and he proves himself a deft comic actor, whether hyperventilating in a department store or delivering perfect blank stares at the women who befuddle him. Egregiously denied an Oscar nomination, Reynolds had fine support from his female co-stars (both Oscar-nominated), especially Bergen, who after almost 15 years of aggressively bad performances finally discovered the comic genius lurking inside her. Whether belting out horrible songs of female empowerment or visiting her ex-husband's current girlfriend in a see-through blouse, she steals every scene she's in with the agility of a born comedienne who can make audiences laugh at her without losing her dignity or self-confidence. (more)

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