Best movie of this year hands down!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

While channel surfing I noticed AMC advertising Jaws. I wasn't interested but I had the passing thought "whatever happened to Dreyfuss?". I hadn't heard of him in decades. I went to IMBD and was amazed at what I found. Apparently he's been in half the crappy movies of the last 20 yrs and a few crappy TV offerings as well. I vaguely remember seeing the Krippendorfs advertised on tv because there was someone I liked in it. How is this possible? Dreyfuss has always been a ham. How can he keep getting jobs once the spell was broken? Does he have blackmail material on half of Hollywood? And I thought why has the term ham actor disappeared? True you don't often see Dreyfuss magnitude overacting anymore but still? Then It came to me. It's all part of the same conspiracy. The term ham actor had to be eliminated because of its obvious application to Dreyfuss. It's all part of the same conspiracy to keep Dreyfuss afloat because well maybe he's Putin's spy. Hey I can't be expected to know all the details. Something as strange as this could involve space aliens.

Even this crusty old fogey was entranced by the film-- well, maybe not so much by the last half-hour where the inevitable got over-stretched. Nonetheless, it's hard to think of better actors and script for an often poignant comedy. I didn't know before who Marsha Mason is, but I do now, in spades. So where's that Oscar that she so richly deserved. I love that first part where she and Dreyfuss try to divvy up the apartment, sort of like Germany and France trying to divvy up the Rhineland. Their chemistry, whether feuding or cuddling, is simply captivating. And little Cummings should qualify for a brainy Secretary of State. She's like an owl observing adult foibles from a tree. Add Simon's clever plot premise and snappy script and GG qualifies as one of Hollywood's brightest non-cutesy comedies. It may have New York written all over it, but thankfully human interest has no borders.

It is starting to feel like another planet when you think about the time that has passed since Neil Simon was cranking out comedies like this one in the 1970's. What makes it feel longer is - Marsha Mason is 70 years old this year 2012 Richard Dreyfuss is 65 years old this year.Their daughter who was a newcomer in this movie is 40 years old this year.Dreyfuss won an Oscar for this one and deservedly so. His character is extremely energetic and in a time before it is fashionable has to play a gay King Richard.As for Mason, she is delicious and bitchy all in moments.Neil Simon is 85 this year and his last writing credit was in 2007. In the 1970's Simon was doing scripts like this, The Odd Couple and The Sun Shine Boys.While the Goodbye Girl is not quite as well done as the others, this is still a pretty solid script for it's era. What seems strange is that this one just was shown on The Essentials on TCM. I am not used to having a movie that came out when I grew up being honored in that Saturday night slot. Still, it deserved the recognition.We need films like this one to remind us people and movies are not perfect.

Hold on tight, I am going on a bit of a rant. "The Goodbye Girl" was a very frustrating movie for me to watch. While it's clearly a very good film and I liked Richard Dreyfus' character very much, the writing irritated me as it seemed a bit irresponsible.My problem is with Marsha Mason's character. The film begins and her live-in has apparently dumped her--moving out and leaving a 'Dear Jane' letter (nice guy, huh?). You feel a bit sorry for her until you soon learn that this bum was STILL married and she knew it! And, she'd been married once before. Now it's obvious she's not good at making decisions involving guys. BUT, here's what really bothered me...she had a young daughter and seemed to have no problem with her kid seeing all this chaos. And, in a weird twist, the little girl sounds like the mother--dispensing wisdom and rolling with the punches. And, Mason often seemed to expect her kid to parent her--making her feel good about herself when bad things happen. Considering how wildly popular the film was, obviously most folks didn't feel the way I did. I just found her character difficult to like and the film could have been better had she had failed relationships BUT they were not caused by her own stupidity. Sleeping with a married man?! What man would want a lady like this? To me, this does NOT seem to be the makings for a romantic film! It's sad, really, as the rest of the film was excellent. Richard Dreyfus was exceptional and I could see why he got the Oscar--he was likable but flawed and quite charming. Mason, on the other hand, seemed like an emotional basket-case in need of saving--not a woman a reasonable man would want in his life. So, as a result of loving and hating the film, I was left VERY emotionally torn--frustrated and touched at the same time (which is a very strange feeling!). Well worth seeing but I can't help but wonder if folks watching the film internalized this weird message and perhaps thought Mason's parenting wasn't that bad and might have unconsciously emulated this. Kids need a lot more security in their lives than the one in this film got. It sure seemed like a case of child neglect in order for the mother to make herself feel good.